The Other
by sapphire-child
Summary: Charlie, unable to cope with Claire’s estrangement any longer, sets off into the jungle alone. But after a month of pain and hardships, he stumbles across something he wasn’t ever expecting to find out there. Story now COMPLETE.
1. Prologue

Title: The Other – 00 – The Prologue  
Original post date: 3rd April 2006  
Spoilers: set from about episode 14 of the second season, from there its just spec and my muse having some fun.  
Summary: Charlie, unable to cope with Claire's estrangement any longer, sets off into the jungle alone. But after a month of pain and hardships, he stumbles across something he wasn't ever expecting to find out there…  
Disclaimer: Isn't mine, never has been, never will be and I promise I'm not making any money – writing fanfiction is simply for my own self-satisfaction.  
Author's Note: I have a feeling this could turn out to be pretty epic so hold onto your hats! Also, the rest of this won't be in dialogue-only form, I just thought it'd be different to have the prologue like this, all disjointed and dialogue-y and cool. Yeah. Go read!

I also made a teaser trailer for this fic which can be found on my youtube account. My username is devi101.

* * *

The baby began to cry as he crunched through the sand towards her shelter. The time had come for him to say what he needed to before he went. He only hoped that she wouldn't just get angry at him again – that she might understand at least a little why he was going.

'Shh…shh…what's wrong? Hmmn? Don't cry…'

'Claire…'

'What do you want Charlie?'

'I'm leaving.'

'I'm sorry, what?'

'I'm leaving. Now. Today.'

'Leaving for where?'

'I don't know.'

'You don't know.'

'I don't know. As far away from here as I can get. Maybe into the jungle…'

'The Others…'

'I don't care about the Others! I've got to get away – don't you understand? I can't stand being here, being around you and Aaron all the time, seeing you and knowing that I can't be with you…it's worse than when you disappeared. I can't do it anymore – I can't take it.'

'So what, you're running away?'

'You know what? Yes, I _am_ running away. I'm running away and I'm not going to stop running until everything stops hurting.'

'And how long will that be exactly?'

'I don't know. Until it stops hurting. I came to say goodbye to you. I haven't told anyone else – I know they'll try and stop me from leaving.'

'Oh my God – you want me to tell them don't you?'

'If they ask. Jack will want to bring me back but I'll come back when I'm ready. Can you make sure he gets that bit at least?'

'Yeah sure, whatever.'

'Claire…'

'I don't want to hear it Charlie.'

'…I'm sorry.'

'No you aren't. You know that I would have told them even if you hadn't asked me to.'

'Not for that, for this.'

'Charlie…?'

A silence.

'I'll be back. I don't know when, but I will be back. Take care of yourself, and Aaron too.'

And then he walked into the jungle, alone, as she stared after him, quite speechless. It was long after he had disappeared from sight that the feeling of the kiss he had given faded completely from her lips – warm, feather light and bitterly sad.


	2. The Girl

Title: The Other – 01 – The Girl  
Original post date: 4th April 2006  
Spoilers: set from about episode 14 of the new season, from there its just spec and my muse having some fun  
Summary: Charlie, unable to cope with Claire's estrangement any longer, sets off into the jungle alone. But after a month of pain and hardships, he stumbles across something he wasn't ever expecting to find out there…  
Disclaimer: Isn't mine, never has been, never will be and I promise I'm not making any money – writing fanfiction is simply for my own self-satisfaction.

* * *

The jungle was quiet when she set out to visit their graves. No whispering voices or the crunching of footsteps that constantly reminded her that she wasn't alone. There was only the early morning mist, the occasional distant chirrup of a bird and her own feet pushing and kicking aside sticks and stones and making more noise than she should have been permitting if she didn't want to draw attention to herself.

They were always watching.

They were probably watching her right now as she hurried down familiar paths she had trod and worn for years. The thought made her skin goosebump all over and she rubbed her bare arms, trying not to shiver. It was still early after all, and under the trees it was always relatively cool – until the humidity set in of course.

She tripped over a sizeable sort of stone that hadn't been there the day before and for a sickening moment she thought she might completely fall but then her hand was wrapped around a low hanging branch and she had righted herself. She took a tentative step forwards, found no other obstructions and continued on her way, glancing down every so often to check that there was nothing else to fall over – it could prove dangerous in her current state.

They weren't too far from home – the graves. There were no flowers or crosses to mark them but she knew where they were all the same. She'd been coming here every day for a long time now and she knew all of the trees and rocks by heart. The road was instinctual, habitual – as familiar as the back of her hand as they said.

She passed the tree with the broken branch, trailed her hands over the leafy ferns, skirted a particularly large outcropping of rock and found the quartet of trees that told her that she was finally here.

She didn't really know why she'd buried Him next to her mother – He'd always done nothing but hurt them – both of them. But she'd known, somehow, that it was the right thing to do. And so she had done it. She had dug His grave and then dragged His limp form down the same path she had just taken, leaving behind an angry smear of blood.

Blood. It had been an integral part of her life for as long as she could remember. Her own, that of her mother, all the animals He had slaughtered for no other reason than He could, the blood of the Others, and then finally His.

But there had been no blood here for a long time now and the thought comforted her enough that the warning prickle on the back of her neck dissipated – at least for now.

She knelt down at her mothers feet but it was too awkward to do that for very long and so after a moment or two, she curled her legs underneath her body instead, landing with a soft thud on the ground. One hand idly began rubbing the taut skin of her belly as her thoughts began to come to the fore one by one.

She couldn't remember how many weeks she had to go now – at first she had counted the days, the weeks, the months, but then the use had faded as the days began to blend into each other, and she had stopped keeping a tally in chalk on the wall.

Now who knew how long she had left? She guessed at a week or less – her body would tell her when it was time and if it didn't then the whispers might. They always told her things – the things that she didn't already know in any case. He'd never liked it, her knowing things she shouldn't have. Her mother said that she scared Him because she knew things that He didn't.

When the whispers finally found her she headed back home – taking a different road this time than the one she had taken there, to the graves. This path too was familiar, every tree, clearing, dip in the ground was an old friend. But all too soon she stopped short, realising that there was somebody else here, in her jungle.

The whispers faded and then stopped as she edged forward tentatively, step at a time. A man lay crumpled, curled underneath a tree – asleep? He was only a small man, lightly built and malnourished at that, and dirty as all hell.

It wasn't one of the Others, of that she was certain. They would never be caught out like this. Unless it was a trap? But why would they ensnare her? It would have been quite easy to just snatch her away before now – she _was_ alone after all.

She took another small step forward, placing a hand on top of her belly and peered curiously at the mans face – at the dark cavern of his mouth, the dirt on his skin, the dark scrubby beard and tangled hair – but mostly at the creases in his forehead and around his eyes.

She could tell just by looking at him that he was in pain – whether physical or mental she couldn't be certain yet. But people's faces didn't crease into frowns like that when they were asleep unless they had reason for it. And she knew he couldn't be cold, after all, the morning wasn't that chilly and in any case, he was wrapped snugly in a jacket with a hood. _And_ he wasn't shivering.

She glanced him over once again, puzzling over the black bands around his wrist and what looked like a ring on his right hand. It featured two letters – his initials? Absurdly, she noticed a hole at the end of his left shoe where the tip of one of his toes was barely poking out and almost giggled.

Her eyes went back to his face and she continued to stare at him when a sudden, horrible thought seized her, making her take a sharp breath – what if he wasn't asleep at all, but dead? Suddenly trembling, the girl lowered herself awkwardly in front of him and stared intently at his chest. It didn't appear to be moving.

Whole body juddering now, she picked up one of his limp hands in hers – the fingernails black with dirt – and after a long, tense moment, she smiled (if tremulously) and the shakes subsided.

'Wake up now Charlie,' she murmured, stroking his hand gently. 'Wake up now.'

Almost immediately his eyes flickered open and then his mouth opened and a single word, a name, bubbled from his lips.

'Claire?'

He blinked confusedly at her for a moment as she processed the name he'd just uttered. It wasn't _her_ name but this man, this Charlie, he had a kind voice, deep and rough (and hoarse at the moment), but very gentle in the handling of the name 'Claire'.

She smiled down at him.

* * *

Charlie's first impression was of a huge wall of curved stomach and an immediate association of _Claire?_

A moment later he pushed his weary eyes upwards and his insides gave a sharp jolt. Claire wasn't pregnant anymore and _this_ certainly wasn't Claire anyway. If he'd had the energy to push her away he would have done so but this girls hands were warm and soft on his and in any case, she was so pregnant he would have been a fool to think that she could cause him any harm – and if she'd wanted to hurt him then why wake him up first? She'd have had an advantage attacking him while he was asleep.

He made a mental note to not let himself get too paranoid as the girl smiled widely at him, showing crooked teeth. God she couldn't be more than fifteen, all big, dark eyes and long hair and _huge_ belly. He wondered vaguely where she'd come from – there was a haze of sleep still clouding his brain somewhat – but then she reached over with one of her soft, warm hands and stroked his lank hair away from his face.

Charlie sighed, his eyes falling shut. He was exhausted, malnourished – he must be hallucinating again. At least this was a nice hallucination instead of the usual, terrifying, religious-life-and-death ones he'd had before. Her fingers traced through his hair several more times and then her hand fell away and he felt a soft _whoosh_ of displaced air as she stood up.

'Get up on your feet Charlie,'

Charlie shook his head; he was too tired to get up. And anyway, she was just a hallucination wasn't she? He figured that he shouldn't follow any more hallucinations – even if they were nice. They only seemed to get him into trouble.

'Please get up on your feet or I shall have to make you do so.'

This time she reached down and began to tug at him. Charlie opened his eyes and after several failed attempts, he found himself sitting up. Several more tugs and he managed to clamber to his feet with the aid of the girl and the trunk of the tree he'd been sleeping underneath.

He stood there feeling triumphant for a long moment as he swayed but then his knees buckled and he was leaning against her.

'Are you a hallucination?' Charlie asked, leaning heavily into her shoulder. She was quite a bit taller than he was and surprisingly strong. 'Because I've never had a hallucination as nice as this before. Like a few weeks ago, I thought that Aaron was in trouble and so I…'

'I am not a hallucination,' the girl interrupted, her voice slow and precise. 'Do you suppose that you can walk a little? You must be very hungry and tired and you certainly need to bathe. My home is not too far to walk from here.'

Charlie blinked, a little startled at her manner of talking and the way she paused at awkward times – almost as if English wasn't her first language – but nodded all the same. His sleep-addled brain was beginning to clear a little but he still wasn't all there – yet. The girl smiled again and picked up his half-empty backpack from the ground.

'We walk this way,'

The girl began to lead him through the jungle quite silently and Charlie tailed after her, one hand on her shoulder, occasionally stopping to lean against her. She didn't say a word and after several minutes, when his brain had started functioning enough for him to form coherent thought patterns, he realised that she had been calling him by his name earlier.

'How did you know my name?' his pace slowed a little. How _did_ she know his name? He hadn't told her had he?

'I just knew,' the girl said and tugged him onwards. 'Sometimes I know things. Things like that.'

'What do you-?'

'No more talking now.' The girl interrupted, her voice firm. 'The whisperers are in this part of the jungle today. We will be safer inside.'

'_Whisperers_? Inside _where_?'

'You will soon see,' the girl was beginning to sound a little impatient now and Charlie shut his mouth. It was too tiring to try and talk and walk at the same time – it was actually making him feel a little lightheaded. It had been a good few days since he'd had anything substantial to eat – he'd been surviving mostly on water and air and the hope that sooner or later he would feel compelled to go back to camp.

It still hadn't happened.

As he plodded along behind the pregnant girl his thoughts turned to Claire and Aaron, safe and comfortable back at camp. He sincerely hoped that neither of them were ever stupid enough to consider spending nearly a month plodding through the jungle with no fixed idea of where they were heading and next to no preparation resulting in fatigue, starvation and dehydration.

Charlie mentally giggled when he realised that starvation and dehydration rhymed and then continued on with his stream of consciousness.

How many times had he nearly died in the past four weeks? How many times had he found himself curled up underneath a tree as the irrational torrential rain had poured down onto his head and he'd wished like anything that he could just stand up and turn back the way he'd come and run all the way home?

And then he would remember the reason he had run away in the first place and he would hunker a bit lower underneath his miserable tarpaulin (before it got blown away and caught high in a tree which ripped it to shreds when he tried to disentangle it) and tell himself that it was all for the best.

She didn't want him around anyway.

He hadn't parted with Claire on very good terms. She was still angry at him for lying to her and stealing Aaron and _then_ he had exploited her yet again, asking her to pass on a message that he should have been strong enough to give himself, in person.

And that wasn't even mentioning the kiss. The kiss that shouldn't have happened, that he hadn't meant to mean anything but which weighted on his mind even now as he tried to run away from it.

The kiss made him hurt all the more because he knew what he was missing now, and what was worse was that he knew he couldn't ever have it – not now. She hadn't been expecting it, he'd known from the expression on her face, how she had looked so completely shocked when he had leant forward – swiftly in case she tried to turn her face away – and touched his lips to hers for the briefest, sweetest moment.

He hadn't meant to feel such a sense of rightness when he kissed her. He also hadn't meant it to be for the whole of her mouth, but he had slipped at the last minute…or at least that's what he told himself. It hadn't been much of a kiss anyway, the barest brush of lips…

'We are here.'

Charlie snapped back to reality with a jolt that felt very much like whiplash and turned his head this way and that, trying to figure out where "here" was.

The girl reached and took his hand, leading him through a pair of metal doors, which had appeared seemingly out of nowhere. She shut and bolted them once they were inside, and then switched on the lights. Charlie glanced around vaguely. It wasn't dissimilar to his own friendly neighbourhood hatch – they appeared to be standing in a long corridor – the Dharma logo on the wall sported a large, six pointed star instead of a swan.

'Come with me,' the girl led him down a corridor and into what appeared to be sleeping quarters. Charlie gladly crawled under a blanket and gave a great sigh. Even if this girl was a crazy, gun-wielding maniac, at least he might get some decent rest here before she decided to cut him up and make his internal organs into stew.

'Sleep as long as you need to,' the girl murmured, tucking the blankets in around him, but Charlie had already drifted into a doze and by the time she left the room, he was dead to the world.


	3. The Hatch

Title: The Other – 02 – The Hatch  
Original post date: 14th April 2006  
Spoilers: set from about episode 14 of the new season, from there its just spec and my muse having some fun  
Summary: Charlie, unable to cope with Claire's estrangement any longer, sets off into the jungle alone. But after a month of pain and hardships, he stumbles across something he wasn't ever expecting to find out there…  
Disclaimer: Isn't mine, never has been, never will be and I promise I'm not making any money – writing fanfiction is simply for my own self-satisfaction.  
Authors Notes: Not a lot really happens in this chapter and I don't really like it but…its kind of necessary. More fun stuff next time I promise! Sorry for the long wait…

* * *

When Charlie opened his eyes nearly ten hours later, he nearly had a heart attack before he remembered where he was. Cautiously, he allowed his eyes to dart around the room he was in. It was relatively large, painted dully in neutral colours and the lights had been dimmed. There were four bunk beds set into two of the walls, on the third wall there was a low cupboard and on the final wall, a single door which was slightly ajar. Both the wall and the door had large Dharma logos painted onto them.

He lay there for a moment longer, feeling uncomfortable and out of place in an actual bed with a mattress, a pillow, sheets, a doona that was thick and plush and…Charlie wriggled about madly, wondering when comfort had become uncomfortable to him. Rolling over, he tried to snuggle down but there was no way he could fall back to sleep now – he was far too awake and this bed was _far_ too soft...

Charlie glanced at his watch and was surprised too see the time was 2:37. 'In the morning or the afternoon?' he muttered. His stomach gave a determined grumble as he pushed the covers off and swung his feet out of bed, his feet touching cold concrete. He looked around for his shoes and, not finding them, tip toed over to the door and pushed it open noiselessly.

He was in a wide corridor, one end leading to a pair of heavy, double doors, the other to an opening which seemed to lead into what looked like a kitchen. The wall opposite his room was blank and bare save for a single, narrow door and what looked like a similarly narrow observation window. This instantly piqued Charlie's curiosity and so he wasted no time in padding up the corridor, keeping a constant eye on the opening to the kitchen, and peering in.

The window was grimy, covered in dust and there were no lights on in the room but Charlie could still see how big it was. He pressed his nose up to the glass and squinted through the darkness, making out the shapes of desks, dozens of them covered in test tubes and beakers as well as what looked like it might be a microscope.

'What the hell is this place for?' he murmured.

'You do not know either then?'

'Jesus!' Charlie nearly tripped over his feet as he took an alarmed step back towards the sleeping quarters. The girl was there, watching him quite silently from the kitchen door, her arms crossed on top of her belly. 'You frightened the hell out of me!'

'I am sorry,'

Charlie and the girl stared at each other for a long moment before she gestured into the kitchen. 'You must be hungry. Would you like something to eat?'

Charlie's stomach roared its approval as he stared at the girl – wondering if there was an ambush waiting for him in the kitchen. He nervously made his way down the corridor towards the girl who was watching him quite carelessly. When he was almost level with her, she turned and padded off into the cavernous kitchen. Charlie followed carefully behind, and his jaw dropped as he took in the enormity of the place. When the girl turned to him, he leapt backwards and she eyed him bemusedly.

'I am not going to attack you,' she reassured him, laughing. 'I was just going to ask you if you would like some soup?'

Charlie nodded, not taking his eyes off her as she pottered over to collect bowls from the cupboard.

The girl straightened up awkwardly, one hand idly rubbing her lower back and she quirked her eyebrows at him.

'Are you going to sit down or do you often eat standing up?'

'No! I just…' Charlie tried to think of some way to end his sentence but there was the smell of something warm and filling coming from the pot on the stove she was stirring and he decided to stop arguing and edged himself into a chair which sat at the kitchen bench, shutting his mouth firmly as she began to ladle large helpings of what appeared to be vegetable soup into the bowls.

He waited until she had awkwardly positioned herself at the bench and taken several tentative spoonfuls of the soup before he began to eat himself. The girl quirked her eyebrows at him again – amused.

'Did you think perhaps it was poisoned?'

Charlie didn't answer, his mouth full of soup. He shovelled in another spoonful before shaking his head and grunting in a non-committal sort of way. The girl hid her smile as she watched him eat through her eyelashes. He seemed to be near starving – the way he was eating. Although in his emaciated state, she could hardly blame him.

'Do you like the soup?' she asked presently.

Charlie glanced up and nodded. If his mouth hadn't been full of food he would have grinned widely at her in thanks but as it were, he was busily spooning more out of the bowl even as he swallowed his current mouthful.

'How long have you been out there in the jungle?'

'About a month,' Charlie said thickly around a piece of carrot.

'Where did you come from?'

Charlie stopped eating and looked shrewdly at the girl in front of him. She gazed back at him quite steadily and after a moment or two he shrugged.

'The plane I was on crashed here. I dunno where though. I have no idea where I am.'

'Were there any others with you?'

Charlie paused again. 'You're not one of them are you?'

'Them?' the girl asked.

'Them.' Charlie confirmed, as though this settled the matter.

'Are-are _you_ one of them?' the girl retorted. 'Because if you are then I have just wasted perfectly good soup on you.'

'You've been here longer than me by the looks of it,' Charlie gestured at her threadbare shirt with his spoon. 'Do I look like I've lived here that long?'

'You look like you are half dead,' the girl crossed her arms and the two of them stared at each other. 'How about you tell me who you are and then I will tell you who I am.'

Charlie snorted. 'Who's to say you won't lie to me? Who's to say that I won't lie to you?'

'I do not really think you are one of Them,' the girls voice softened. 'I knew one of them – for a long while. And he used to give me the most awful feeling…' she shivered suddenly and Charlie frowned as her eyes slid out of focus. After a moment however, her eyes latched back onto his face and she continued. 'You do not give me that feeling. I do not believe that you are one of Them.'

Charlie stared at her. The girl sighed and picked up her spoon again, toying with it before dipping it back into her soup. After a long moment passed, Charlie picked up his own spoon as well and took another mouthful.

'Aren't you going to start asking me questions now Charlie?'

Charlie began to choke on his spoonful of soup and it burned its way down his throat.

'I'm sorry?' he choked.

The girl took another delicate spoonful of soup before she answered. 'It is only natural for you to be curious about me.' She shrugged. 'Especially as you do not seem certain on whether I am one of them or not. You will doubtlessly want to know where I have come from, how I got here, how I knew your name before you even told me, how I became pregnant so young…'

Charlie coughed, hoping that the burning in his throat would subside. The girl pushed a mug of water into his hands and he took a large gulp of it before speaking in somewhat of a croak.

'Er, well I guess now would be a good time?'

The girl nodded and settled herself down to her soup again, occasionally glancing up at Charlie between mouthfuls.

'What would you like to ask me? I cannot promise that I will have the answer to all your questions but I will try my best to answer them for you.'

Charlie's brain went mad with possibilities and questions and theories each wilder than the last. Of all his experiences with the supposed "Others" on the island, he'd never dreamt in a million years that he'd find himself in the company of a pregnant fifteen year old who'd made him _soup_.

'What's your name?'

The girl looked up from her bowl, a look of utmost surprise on her face and then she did something Charlie had not expected from her – she began to giggle madly. He mentally smacked himself in the forehead. Of _all_ the things that he could have asked her…

'My name is Grace,' she held out a hand towards him, still grinning, and Charlie took it, surprised at the callousness of her skin. 'And yours is Charlie – yes?'

'You never really explained how you knew that,' Charlie said suspiciously, taking his hand back and nursing his fingers under the table.

Grace laughed again – she seemed a lot more at ease now. 'Yes I did! Do not be so silly. I told you that sometimes I just know things – things like that.'

'How?'

Grace's smile faded a little and she tilted her head to look at him better. 'Are you on the same island as I am Charlie? Is it so hard to believe that I could know your name before I ever met you?'

He didn't answer and Grace went back to her soup, still giggling silently.

'What else would you like to know?'

'How'd you get here?' Charlie leant forward, almost forgetting about his soup altogether.

'I have been here since I was a very small child,' Grace explained blandly as though she had told this story a thousand times. 'My mother and I were on a big boat – my father was the captain of his own ship as he was very rich – and we were sailing around the world before I reached an age when I would have to go to school...' Grace blinked hard several times and then looked down at her soup. 'I'm sorry. It's just very sad…'

'What's sad?' Charlie asked, completely non-plussed.

'We were shipwrecked,' Grace explained, still looking down. 'Here on this island. My father was swept away and drowned and all that was left was my mother and several of the crewmembers and me.'

Charlie stared at her, not liking the way this story was going. 'What happened to the rest of them then? Your mum and everyone…?'

Grace lifted her head and stared blankly towards Charlie. 'Oh, they died. One by one they all just…died. There was not enough food in the area, there were many accidents…or at least they thought that they were accidents…

'We began to wander further and further from the place we had crashed, trying to find food. That's how we found this place – my mother and I. This is where we found _Him_. He said he was a scientist. He used to lock himself in the laboratory all the time – he never let us in there with him. He used to hurt us. But we could not…we could never…'

She trailed off, abruptly stood up and took her bowl over to the sink to begin washing it out. Charlie sat very still, unsure of what to say. Grace stood at the sink for a long time, her long hair falling to obscure her face but when she turned back she was smiling again, if tremulously.

'Well that is enough nonsense from me for now. Did you have any other questions to ask me at the moment?'

Charlie shook his head but then his eyes went to her stomach, asking the question for him. Grace followed his gaze and glanced down at it too, putting a protective hand over her baby.

'You want to know how I got pregnant don't you?' she raised her eyes to Charlie who offered her something between a shrug and a nod. Grace frowned down at her pregnant bulk and Charlie noticed that the hand on her stomach was trembling slightly. Suddenly he wasn't so sure that he wanted to know the answer to his question after all. She had mentioned a man – a man who had once lived here with her and her mother but he certainly wasn't here now – and neither was her mother.

'I do not think that is a question I would like to answer just now,' Grace said quietly, shaking Charlie out of his thoughts. 'But it will come in time. Is that all right?'

Charlie nodded.

'I'm going to have a rest,' Grace said vaguely. 'Take a look around, have some more soup – whatever you want.'

The kitchen felt a lot quieter and emptier without Grace's. Charlie finished his soup in silence and then washed his bowl out, the sound of it clunking against the metal echoing loudly.

His head was beginning to hurt but he felt a little too nervous to go back and sleep in the same room as Grace – she was still a relative unknown. He settled instead for poking around the rest of the establishment until he found a suitable couch to collapse onto. He hadn't really taken into account just how exhausted he was – within minutes he was asleep again and even the sound of Grace accidentally dropping a mug of water and letting out a stream of vehement curses when it shattered wasn't enough to wake him.


	4. The Prayer

Title: The Other – 03 – The Prayer  
Original post date: 22nd April 2006  
Spoilers: set from about episode 14 of the new season, from there its just spec and my muse having some fun  
Summary: Charlie, unable to cope with Claire's estrangement any longer, sets off into the jungle alone. But after a month of pain and hardships, he stumbles across something he wasn't ever expecting to find out there…  
Disclaimer: Isn't mine, never has been, never will be and I promise I'm not making any money – writing fanfiction is simply for my own self-satisfaction.  
Authors Note: Slightly longer chapter this time, there was just too much to fit in here. The book that Charlie finds in the hatch is a real book which I own. Yeah…that's about it. Oh and you were asking how Claire is reacting to Charlie being gone? Well…

* * *

Well he seems fine,' Jack handed Aaron back to Claire who gladly pressed him to her breast to calm him down. 'There's no signs of parasites, he's still growing and gaining weight which is a very good thing…' he paused to smile at Claire. 'You're doing an excellent job Claire.'

Claire hushed her son and then gave Jack a half smile. 'Thanks,' she murmured.

Jack smiled back but then his demeanour grew slightly awkward and he cleared his throat. 'What about you? How are you doing?'

'My back gets a bit sore from time to time,' Claire said absently, her hands automatically soothing her son as she spoke. 'Probably just from sleeping on the ground all the time – especially when I was pregnant – that would have really thrown it out of whack.'

Jack nodded, studying her. 'You've probably got lordosis – it's very common in pregnant women. That's where the uh, posture changes because of the weight of the baby in the womb. Tilts the pelvis forwards to allow for the extra weight out in front.' Claire nodded in recognition. The term didn't sound familiar to her but the effects did. 'You just need to work on your postural muscles, learn to keep it neutral again.' He shifted uncomfortably again and Claire busied herself with her son. 'And I uh, didn't mean just physically. How are you doing yourself? You know, with Char - '

'I'm fine,' Claire said a little too quickly and Jack stared at her. 'What? I really am fine! I mean, I was coping all right without him anyway wasn't I? And its not like he's going to be gone forever, is it? He'll come back when he's ready…'

'Claire…' Jack began gently.

'Don't _Claire_ me,' she bristled as he reached out to touch her in a gesture of reassurance. 'I'm not worried because I know he'll be okay out there – he's not stupid Jack. I mean even if he's hurt he'll get back somehow, he'll figure out a way to get back to me – I mean us. He's just – you know he's probably lost. That's why it's taking him so long to get back, or maybe he's –' she paused, slowly becoming aware of the tears on her face as her breathing turned to a long drawn out moan. Jack reached for her again and she recoiled. 'Don't touch me! I'm fine okay? I'm fine, and so is Charlie. You know he's probably on his way back right now! You just wait and see! He'll come back – he has to come back – ' Claire gave a great, gasping sob. Jack moved to support her only to be pushed away again. 'I'm fine!' she bawled.

'You don't look fine to me,' Jack said firmly and finally Claire allowed him to put his arms around her. Aaron was crying as well now, his cries mingling with Claire's desperate sobs. 'It's okay Claire.'

'But it's not!' she sobbed. 'I didn't even say goodbye to him properly that day Jack! Oh _god_… what if he's dead? What if Charlie's dead?'

'What if he's not?' Jack countered immediately. 'There's no use dwelling on the negatives if…'

'What if they took him? What if the Others took him?' Claire was verging on hysteria now; her free hand was clenching and unclenching the fabric of Jack's shirt as she gasped for air. 'What if they've hurt him? Oh god what if they've _killed_ him Jack? What'll I do if he's dead?'

'He might still turn up,' Jack repeated, rubbing her back a little awkwardly. 'We just have to be patient. Kate and Locke are still out there trying to track him, remember? And I mean, maybe he is just lost, like you said before…'

Claire pulled away from Jack very suddenly and looked him straight in the eye, an utterly formidable expression on her face.

'He's been gone over a month now Jack. A _month_.'

Jack opened his mouth to say something but then closed it.

Claire looked down at her son and began to quiet him again – only just realising the effect she'd been having on him. As she wrapped him more snugly in his blanket a tear ran down her nose. 'It's my fault if he's gotten himself hurt Jack. He left because of _me_.'

* * *

'You were talking in your sleep again last night,'

Charlie glanced up from his breakfast, mildly interested. A piece of cereal was caught on his lower lip and his tongue darted out to retrieve it before he answered.

'Really? What was I saying?'

Grace looked pointedly at him as she answered. 'You kept saying something about "the baby" and then you would say _her_ name.'

Charlie sighed and went back to his cereal.

'Are you ever going to tell me who she is?'

'I _already_ told you,' Charlie said, exasperated. 'She was on the plane when it crashed. She was pregnant when we crashed and she just had a baby boy almost a month and a half ago now. She's…she _was_ my friend.'

Grace eyed him shrewdly for a moment. 'You're sure that's all?'

'I'm sure that I still don't want to talk about it,' Charlie said, a little sharper than he had meant to. Grace looked quite put out but she shrugged and went back to her own breakfast.

It had been five days now since Grace had stumbled across Charlie, sprawled underneath a tree in the jungle and in that time not a lot had happened. They had spent hours talking, probing each other delicately for answers but there were certain areas that they skirted around with a great amount of trepidation. Charlie had been delighted in the record collection which was much more extensive than in The Swan and featured some of his personal favourites. Grace had been quite amused by his attachment to the record player and often sat and read whilst he settled down and listened to music.

After the first uncomfortable night on the squashy couch, Charlie took to sleeping in a sort of giant nest of blankets on the floor, after pushing the couch up against the wall to make space. Grace had eyed it curiously but not asked any questions and so he had continued to curl up in it every night.

It was on the third day that Grace had her first major contraction since Charlie had gotten there. She was reaching for her book, a bout of laughter still catching in her throat from something Charlie had just said when her face paled and her bottom lip was tucked in behind her teeth.

Charlie was still smiling when she put her hand on her stomach but his face dropped too, when he realised what was happening. 'Grace?'

Grace had waved an impatient hand at him and Charlie watched silently, wondering if he should do anything but within a minute or two the contraction had subsided and Grace looked up at him – a quiet, unspoken fear in her eyes.

And then she had smiled awkwardly, dismissively rubbing her tummy. 'They happen sometimes. I'll be okay.'

'Yeah, I know.' Charlie had said and then busied himself with the record player. Being with Grace – this _monstrously_ pregnant young girl – constantly reminded him of happier times with a more rotund Claire. The fact that Grace was incredibly curious about the woman he had left behind wasn't helping matters either – she would bring her up ten to a dozen times a day, asking where she was from, what she looked like…Charlie was loathe to discuss the matter of Claire however, and Grace was constantly knocked back in her attempts to find out more.

'You don't want to tell me about Him – whoever He is,' Charlie had pointed out quite brusquely one day. 'So I'll make you a deal – I won't ask you questions about Him if you don't ask questions about Claire.'

Grace finished her breakfast in silence and then left the hatch to go to the graves as per usual. The first time she had done this, Charlie had gone into a blind panic, thinking that she really _was_ one of the Others but when she returned without guns or hordes of people, he calmed down enough to ask her where she'd been. Grace had led him to the graves and explained that it was her mother and Him – although she refused to give any more information past that.

After finishing his own breakfast, Charlie wandered aimlessly into the main living area where most of the books and the record player was situated. After a quick flick through the records and finding nothing to tickle his fancy, Charlie turned instead to the library, tilting his head sideways to read the faded titles on their spines, pausing at a red spine which read "Three Stories by Paul Gallico" followed by a list of their titles. Sighing heavily and deciding it was better than nothing, Charlie flopped down into the nearest chair and began to read the first story about the love between a crippled man and a young girl, brought together by an injured Goose.

Impatient, he flipped through several pages and then gave up and went onto "The Small Miracle" which was about a sick donkey only to flip to the third and final story – hoping it too wasn't about an animal.

He was disappointed when he realised that the third story was also based around an animal – a cow as it were – but as he flipped to the back of the book he saw the word "prayer" repeated several times on the same page and despite himself, he stopped to read it.

_For a prayer need not be a rhetorical address, or an itemized petition, or lips moved soundlessly inside a cathedral, or even words spoken into the air. A prayer may be a wordless inner longing, a sudden outpouring of love, a yearning within the soul to be for a moment united with the infinite and the good, a humbleness that needs no abasement or speech to express, a cry for help in the darkness for help when all seems lost, a song, a poem, a kind deed, a reaching for beauty, or the strong, quiet, inner reaffirmation of faith._

_A prayer can in fact be anything that is created of God that turns to God._

Charlie stared heavily at the small book in his hands and then he folded down the corner of the page and shut it again. When Grace returned he waved it at her. 'Can I keep this?'

Grace looked puzzled but agreed and Charlie tucked the book carefully under the corner of his blankets before continuing with his day.

* * *

After Jack had left, Claire had managed to pull herself together enough to continue with her day. With John and Kate away looking for Charlie, her main companion had become Sun. She was good company and the two had more in common now that Sun was pregnant. She hadn't stopped by this particular morning however and Claire was beginning to think that she was going to have to go and _look_ for someone to talk to and keep her mind off things when a quiet, deep voice sounded from behind her.

'Hello,'

'Oh,' Claire turned her head and smiled. 'Hi Eko.' He was standing there, tall and imposing, water bottle in hand but he was smiling in welcome and Claire couldn't help but feel her spirits lift a little with the corners of his mouth.

'How are you today?'

Claire hitched Aaron a little higher in her arms. 'Oh, we're okay.'

'Can I sit for a while?'

'Of course,' Claire gestured to the spot next to her and Eko took a seat, drinking deeply from his water bottle

'I heard that you were upset this morning,' Eko said after he finished swallowing his mouthful of water.

'Who told you that?' Claire asked quickly.

Eko paused before answering. 'I went to talk to Jack this morning and he was talking to Ana-Lucia about it. He is very worried about you.'

'Well…' Claire looked embarrassed. 'Well I'm okay now.'

'That is all right then,' Eko said, sounding relieved, and Claire fidgeted with Aaron's blanket before transferring him to her other shoulder.

'Can I-can I ask you something? Eko?'

'Of course,'

'I was just wondering…' Claire trailed off and then laughed, shaking her head. 'I'm probably going to sound so stupid to ask this but I honestly have no idea…'

'If it is an honest question then it is never stupid,' Eko said firmly.

Claire bit her lip and then her words came out in a rush. 'Well it's just that I don't know how to pray.'

Eko actually laughed but then he saw the expression on Claire's face and softened his mirth into a smile instead. 'Is that all?'

'I need to learn,' Claire said anxiously. 'I need to pray for Charlie – that he'll be safe. I mean, I _was_ angry at him – I still am – but I didn't really want him to run off into the jungle by himself. I mean, he's been out there for more than a month now – what if he's hurt himself and can't get back? He could be dead for all we know…' her voice choked off the end of the sentence and she looked down at her son to hide the burning tears that were collecting on her lower lids.

'You do not _learn_ how to pray,' Eko explained slowly. 'A prayer can be many things. And it does not have to be memorised words from the Bible – you can make your own prayer.'

'I don't know how,'

'Of course you do,' Eko said patiently. 'Tell me exactly what it is you wish to pray about.'

Claire looked slightly embarrassed. 'Shouldn't I be kneeling or have my hands clasped or something?'

'Your hands are otherwise occupied,' Eko pointed out. 'But if you would _like_ to kneel and clasp your hands…?'

Claire shook her head. 'I guess I'd feel a little silly if I did…so I can just sit here and hold Aaron and pray?'

'Just say what it is that you want to say Claire,' Eko said. 'I will listen and if I can help you at all, I will.'

Claire took a deep breath.

'Charlie and I were strangers – we met by chance, became friends by default and then somehow he ended up becoming so involved with my life it felt like he was trying to push his way in all the time. Charlie is religious but he's also a drug addict. He lied to me and he hurt me and he took my son away from me but when I think about him I keep remembering all the things he did for me before. The peanut butter…and all the other sweet things like helping me with my washing and with Aaron – even if he did get a bit carried away with that particular…duty. Did you know he…he killed a man for me? I didn't ask him to. I didn't ever think that he would…but I know that he would do it again in a heartbeat. But killing is a sin isn't it? So if he ends up in hell then it'll be partially my fault won't it? And its already my fault that he's left now – though its not my fault that he couldn't stand not being with me, he brought that upon himself. What did he expect me to do? Forgive him? I trusted him above everyone else and he _still_ lied to me.

'I didn't want him to leave. But I also kind of did because I figured it'd give me the space I needed to get over him, only now I keep finding that I don't _want_ to get over him. I'd still count him as a friend – I can't say that he's never done anything for me and shrug it off because he _did_ do so much for us, me and Aaron both. Everything he could physically, emotionally do he did for us. He went to hell and back to save both of us. I'm not sure if I want John and Kate to bring him back but I'm terrified that they won't be able to find him. If he's dead – if he's gotten hurt at all then it'll be _my_ fault and…I'm sorry.'

Claire shut her eyes painfully. There was a long silence and then Eko's hand touched her lightly on the shoulder.

'You have been missing Charlie?'

'Yes,' she whispered.

'You have been hoping for his speedy return?'

'Yes,'

'Then you have already prayed for Charlie,' Eko said. The sound of a small kerfuffle broke out a little further along the beach as he spoke and Claire frowned and opened her eyes to see, wondering what was happening. 'You do not need to add an "amen" to the end of a sentence to make it a prayer.'

'Yeah…' Claire nodded, trying to blink the blur of tears away as Eko too saw the commotion down the beach. 'What do you suppose is happening?' Claire asked.

'I do not know,' Eko said, frowning but he stood up quickly and offered Claire his hand. 'Although it looks like we should go and find out.'

The two of them walked down the beach in silence, trying to hear or see what was going on. As they drew closer, Claire saw a flash of a long mane of dark curls and she grabbed Eko's sleeve very suddenly.

Kate.

Which meant that…

Claire broke into a trot and broke through the small circle of people surrounding Kate and John, including Jack who was asking them a million questions at once. Claire didn't even listen to him, she glanced quickly around the circle before racing up to Kate and grasping her arm.

Kate jumped and whirled around but her face softened when she saw who it was.

'Did you find him?' Claire demanded, not even waiting for Kate to open her mouth.

Kate shook her head sadly. 'We lost the trail about three weeks ago.' Claire felt like her knees were about to collapse. 'I'm so sorry Claire.'

Claire turned to look at John who was shaking his head at Jack. 'John?' he paused mid sentence to turn and face her. 'We lost him. I'm sorry.'

'Not as sorry as I am,' she said, her voice hitching with anger as well as sadness. 'Did you even _try_ John? Did you even _want_ Charlie to come back?'

'Of course I did!' John said, instantly angry. 'You think I would have gone out into the jungle for a month trying to track him if I _didn't_ want to find him? You're the one who didn't tell us he was gone until he'd been gone for almost a full day!'

'Oh so this is all _my_ fault is it?' Claire steamed. 'It's _my_ that Charlie left, it's _my_ fault that you had to go looking for him…'

'Isn't it?' John said acidly.

Claire stared at him for a moment, lower lip trembling, and then she turned and ran.


	5. The Runaway

Title: The Other – 04 – The Runaway  
Original post date: 25th April 2006  
Spoilers: set from about episode 14 of the new season, from there its just spec and my muse having some fun  
Summary: Charlie, unable to cope with Claire's estrangement any longer, sets off into the jungle alone. But after a month of pain and hardships, he stumbles across something he wasn't ever expecting to find out there…  
Disclaimer: Isn't mine, never has been, never will be and I promise I'm not making any money – writing fanfiction is simply for my own self-satisfaction.  
Authors Note: I wasn't actually planning to have this chapter but then it popped into my head before the next one. I think I've gone now and overdone Claire's emo-ness in relation to Charlie so if I have, feel more than free to smack me and say "we've got the picture! She's emo over Charlie being gone!" and I shall nod and then round on my muse and say "I told you so!" whilst she shakes her fist vehemently at me and yells "screw you hippy!" … or something like that anyway. Enjoy!

* * *

Claire wasn't entirely sure how she thought that she could track Charlie down with no tracking experience, no supplies and a baby in her arms but she did know that she couldn't just _sit still_ and wait for him anymore. John and Kate's return had given her a good proverbial slap in the face and she was more anxious than ever about Charlie's whereabouts.

Holding Aaron closely to her chest, she raised her other hand to her face to brush aside the hot, angry tears that were still sliding down her cheeks. She silently cursed her short legs as a stitch began to cut into her side but she kept going, pushing her way into the jungle in the direction that Charlie had gone more than a month ago.

'_Claire…'_

'_I don't want to hear it Charlie.'_

'…_I'm sorry.'_

'_No you aren't. You know that I would have told them even if you hadn't asked me to.'_

'_Not for that, for this.'_

And then he had kissed her. God…_why_ had he kissed her? It would have made everything so much easier if he _just hadn't kissed her_. She had been far too shocked at the time to actually kiss him back – not that he had kissed her very hard in any case, but still…

She brushed at her tears more angrily still. As if things hadn't been complicated enough between them! Things had been blissfully simplified when he had left her alone after the whole kidnapping fiasco – until he had gone and run off into the jungle that is. She could just imagine his reaction if he could see her now, storming off into the jungle to find him.

'I thought you weren't even talking to me? Why do you care that I've disappeared into the jungle?'

'Just because I'm angry at you doesn't mean I want you to go and top yourself!' she muttered angrily to herself. 'Jesus Charlie, you've even got me talking to myself now…'

'So what, you waited a whole month to come and find me? Some friend you are...'

'Shut up!'

'Claire!'

They were beginning to come after her now – the others. They were going to try and bring her back to camp, she knew it. Well they were just going to waste a trip weren't they? She wasn't going to come back until she was dragging Charlie with her by his left ear…

'Claire!'

It wasn't until she heard footsteps pounding up behind her and someone grabbed her shoulder that she realised she had actually stopped moving and was just standing there with a shaking hand over her ears, tears pouring down her face. Aaron gave a disconsolate gurgle.

'Claire?'

She turned her face up to gaze solemnly at Eko, tears ripping down her face. 'I think I just hit that point where you realise that you've _completely_ fucked everything up and all you want to do is sit and cry forever because you've been such an idiot.'

Eko gripped her shoulder a little more firmly and then Claire leant against him, resting her temple against his chest and breathing a great sigh as yet more tears leaked down her face and into the torn shirt that Eko always wore. He folded his arms around her shoulders tentatively and then squeezed gently.

'Do you think he'll come back?' Claire murmured but perhaps she said it too quietly because Eko didn't answer her – in fact, he didn't speak at all. Not even after he had led her back to her shelter and left her there alone to sort herself out. Claire sat there silently for the rest of the day, ignoring everyone who came to her. There was nothing they could say that could help her. All she wanted – all she needed – was Charlie.

* * *

'Oh!'

Charlie looked up sharply at Grace who had placed a hand on her stomach.

'Was that another contraction?' he asked.

Grace shook her head and smiled. 'No. It just kicked. Here – would you like to feel it?'

Charlie hesitated before laying down his fork and reaching a hand over to lay it on the taut skin of Grace's belly. Despite himself, he smiled when he felt a miniscule foot kicking against his hand.

'Looks like you've got a tap dancer.'

Grace looked confused. 'Tap…?'

'Yeah it's a type of dancing…' when Grace continued to look non-plussed, Charlie's eyes grew round in comprehension. 'Ohhh right, you probably wouldn't have ever seen any tap dancing before would you?' Charlie took his hand away from her stomach and stood up. 'I never did dancing or anything but in tap I think they sort of shuffle their feet around – a bit like this.'

Grace lapsed into giggles as Charlie scuffed his feet about and then did a dramatic sort of finish, both arms held clumsily in the air.

'It's probably nothing like that,' Charlie apologised. 'But it gives you a rough idea.'

'Are you much of a dancer back where you come from?' Grace asked, still giggling breathlessly.

Charlie gave a snort of derisive laughter. 'Are you kidding me?'

Grace chuckled and then rested her hands on the top of her belly bump. 'My mother was a dancer when she was small. She did ballet.'

Charlie nodded, trying to look interested as Grace smiled nostalgically.

'She taught me a little bit – when we got bored. There were lots of records with music we could do ballet to in here but He didn't like us playing the music very often.' Looking thoughtful, Grace stood and grasped the kitchen bench carefully before doing a clumsy plie. She laughed. 'I cannot do it with being pregnant however. You are meant to tuck your pelvis underneath and then pull your stomach in.'

'I can see how that would be a problem in your current circumstances,' Charlie said teasingly and Grace chuckled again before waddling around the counter to get herself a glass of water.

He watched her carefully as she swallowed down the entire glass full and then refilled it again. She had been having contractions all day with increasing regularity and whilst she insisted that she'd had days like this one, heavy on the contractions and baby movement, Charlie couldn't help but think that she was more than likely about ready to pop.

'How many weeks in are you?' he asked suddenly. Grace stared at him.

'I am sorry?'

'How many weeks pregnant are you?' Charlie asked, more insistently. Grace rolled her eyes.

'I am fine Charlie. I am not going to have the baby today, I promise you.'

'How can you be sure?' Charlie countered immediately.

'Because I am sure!' Grace snapped angrily. 'And to answer your stupid question, no I do not know how many weeks into pregnancy I am. I _was_ keeping a tally but I lost count. The days blur together here – had you not noticed?' barely pausing to draw breath, she steamed on. 'Now, if you don't mind, I am going to go for a walk – without you breathing down my neck!'

Grace stormed out of the kitchen and outside, slamming the main door behind her so hard that Charlie winced.

After several hours had passed by, Charlie went outside into the almost-darkness and called her name a couple of times. There was no answer. Feeling slightly worried but knowing that he'd get his head ripped off if he did try and bring her home, Charlie retreated inside again and put on a record, settling himself down to listen.

'Charlie!'

Charlie jerked awake. The record player had stopped playing and Grace was calling from the kitchen.

'Charlie!'

She called his name again – more urgently this time – and Charlie was up and staggering groggily towards the kitchen, banging into walls and doorframes as he went.

'Grace? Are you okay?'

'Charlie? Charlie! Oh God…quick…quick…Oh _God_…'

Charlie frowned, broke into a run, gripped the doorframe and swung into the kitchen only to freeze in the doorway. All the blood seemed to rush out of his head at the sight that met him. Grace was standing in the kitchen, one hand was supporting her hugely swollen stomach and the other was gripping the kitchen bench so tightly that her knuckles were discoloured.

'Having…contractions,' she grunted, as though he needed an explanation.

Charlie hurried forwards. 'Are they just normal contractions or…?'

'No… Noooo I think I am – I think I am having the baby… now… oh it _hurts_… Charlie…' Grace let go of the bench and gripped Charlie's shoulder instead. He could feel her nails digging frantically into the flesh around his collarbone but he barely noticed – his head felt like it had just imploded, the enormity of the situation hitting him square between the eyes. Grace was having her baby. He was only other person here. _He_, Charlie, was going to have to deliver the baby, Grace's baby.

'Oh. Fuck.'

Grace actually laughed, her breath whooshing past Charlie's ear. 'Yes that is what I also thought.'

'Oh _fuck_!' Charlie repeated, running a hand through his hair. Grace took a deep breath and then pulled back just enough to look Charlie in the eyes. If she felt uncomfortable being this close to him she didn't show it but Charlie was feeling decidedly nervous as Grace licked her lips and gasped out a question.

'Do you know how to do this thing?'

Charlie stared back into her eyes and desperately wanted to tell her no, desperately wanted to say that he'd only ever watched someone else deliver a baby before – he'd never even done basic first aid training for Gods sake! There was no _way_ he could deliver her baby!

But then he took her hand off his shoulder and squeezed her fingers gently. Then, to his great surprise, his mouth opened and a calm voice spoke into the empty terror that was flooding into the room.

'Yes. I know how to do this.'


	6. The Child

Title: The Other – 05 – The Child  
Original post date: 1st May 2006  
Spoilers: set from about episode 14 of the new season, from there its just spec and my muse having some fun  
Summary: Charlie, unable to cope with Claire's estrangement any longer, sets off into the jungle alone. But after a month of pain and hardships, he stumbles across something he wasn't ever expecting to find out there…  
Disclaimer: Isn't mine, never has been, never will be and I promise I'm not making any money – writing fanfiction is simply for my own self-satisfaction.

* * *

'_Charlie, listen to me. Tell Kate – Charlie, look at me. Tell Kate to wait until the contractions are sixty seconds apart. You got that? Now, she's gonna need to make sure that Claire pushes, but not too hard, not too fast – just until the head is clear, and then as hard as she can. Now, when the baby is out, make sure she clears its nose and its mouth.'_

'_Okay, but you'll be there by then, right?'_

'_No, I won't.'_

'_Jack—'_

'_I'm not going anywhere. I need to stay here. Now you tell Kate – that she's gonna have to deliver this baby.'_

* * *

Grace had contractions for hours whilst Charlie held her hand – gritting his teeth. Claire had had enough trouble during her labour because of her slight frame but Grace wasn't even fully-grown yet – she was still developing her childbearing capabilities. From the expression on her face, Charlie could tell that she was in great amounts of pain and yet she barely made a sound the whole time.

'You seem awfully calm,' she commented at one point, then sucked in a breath as another contraction hit her. She waited until the pain had subsided before continuing. 'Were you this calm when Claire was giving birth?'

Charlie shook his head and smiled a little. 'Last time I was _allowed_ to panic because everybody else was doing all the real slog. This time I've got to be calm because if I get hysterical then _you'll _get hysterical and then we'll all be in trouble.'

Grace watched smiled but she noticed the paleness of Charlie's face all the same.

'Did you hold her hand too?' she squeezed Charlie's digits gently. 'Claire's?'

Charlie looked down at Grace's hand – it was trembling a little in his – and sighed.

'No,' he amended. 'No I didn't.'

'But you wanted to?'

Charlie hesitated to answer when another contraction hit her but after it subsided, the question was still there in her eyes and so he answered.

'Yes. Yes I did.'

Grace sighed, shutting her eyes and letting her head fall back against the pillow – waiting for the next contraction to strike. Her usually straight hair was curling into sweaty ringlets around her pale face and she looked ready to pass out.

And Charlie held her hand.

* * *

'_Claire... I think this is about the time you're supposed to start pushing, okay? So, uh, push. And… no don't hold your breath, honey. You're not gonna be able to push if you hold… Claire? Claire, what are you doing? Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Claire, you need to push right now. Don't do this, Claire, okay? You can't stop this. This is happening. Your baby is coming and I need your help!'_

'_It's not going to want me!'_

'_What?'_

'_It knows I don't want it and I was gonna give it away! Babies know that stuff!'_

'_Do you want this baby now? Hmm? Do you want it to be healthy and safe? Okay. Because your baby knows that, too. You're not alone in this. We are _all_ here for you. This baby is all of ours. But I need you to push, okay?'_

* * *

'It's His,'

'Sorry?'

Grace looked ready to pass out from the pain; her lip was red and swollen from being bitten over and over, her eyes were squeezed shut and her free hand was gripping the sheets beneath her, twisting them into a tangled knot. She rocked backwards and forwards and moaned silently for a moment before she managed to speak but even then her eyes were still shut and every word seemed like an effort.

'The baby,' she grunted through her teeth. 'It is His. The man who lived here before we came. He…He always…He used to…and my mother as well. He had been alone for so long that He did not care. We could not stop Him – He was too strong. He threatened to hurt us – to kill us – so many times…we couldn't…'

Charlie nodded, trying not to show how horrified he was. 'It's okay Grace. He's gone now and that's all that matters okay? Now you just concentrate on breathing. Okay? Just breathe yeah? In – and…'

'I killed him!' Grace wailed suddenly and Charlie was so startled, not only by this sudden revelation, but also by the volume of her voice, that he nearly fell over. 'He killed my mother and I knew… I knew he'd kill me too. I knew eventually he'd kill me too. It was not until afterwards that I realised that he'd…that I was…'

Charlie gaped at her tear-streaked face, her hair plastered to her face and neck and finally, abandoning all pretence, he put his arms around her shoulders and pulled her to him. Her sobs echoed against his chest as he awkwardly stroked her hair and after a while her sobs subsided a little.

Grace opened both her eyes and looked up the length of Charlie's chest to stare into his eyes.

'I am glad you are here Charlie,' she murmured, exhausted from her outburst. 'I am glad you are with me. I would be so afraid to be alone…'

Charlie helped her sit back against the cushions again. 'You just take a break, do some of that breathing okay? I think you're getting close now…'

'How long have I been…?'

Charlie glanced down at his watch and was surprised to see the time. 'It's been nearly seven hours now. It's almost morning.'

Grace nodded tiredly but then next moment her mouth opened in a silent moan and she was gripping his hand tightly.

'You just hang in there.' Charlie muttered – barely aware of what he was saying. 'You're almost there Grace. You're doing so well…'

* * *

'_On the count of three. Ready? One...two...three, push. Go ahead. Good! Push! Good, good! Yeah, that's good! Push! Push!'_

* * *

'Oh _God_ this is revolting… okay push!'

Grace didn't answer but she didn't scream either as she pushed with all her might.

'You're allowed to scream,' Charlie offered. 'If you think it'll help…'

Grace paused for breath and managed a short laugh. 'No, I am fine.'

'You're sure?' Grace nodded and Charlie nodded back before training his eyes back where they were supposed to be. 'Okay then. Ready to push again?'

Grace nodded and without any prompting, began to push again.

'Okay and relax again, breathe…'

Grace kept pushing.

'Hey!' Charlie yelped. 'Stop! No! No look, don't… don't… stop Grace! Grace, you can't go too fast or you'll hurt yourself!'

Grace let out a vehement exclamation and Charlie looked quite taken aback as she continued to push.

'Grace! Seriously! _Stop_.'

* * *

'_Relax, relax, relax. Breathe. Come on, breathe. Breathe. Okay. Okay. Ready? You got to do another one. I can see it. It's close. Go, go, go, go. Push. It's really good -- I think it's close. Come on. Yeah! That's it! Okay. Okay good! Good, good, good!_

* * *

Grace collapsed backwards and for one terrible moment Charlie thought she might have actually fainted from the pain but next moment she had lifted her head again and was staring at Charlie, her eyes almost black.

'I just want it _out_ of me,' she whispered brokenly. 'I just want _Him_ out of me.'

'Okay, sure, fine, that's fair enough but these things take _time_,' Charlie said quickly. 'You'll tear yourself apart from the inside out if you keep pushing like that.'

Grace rolled her eyes and gave a great sigh before tensing up again.

'Are you ready to go again?'

'Yes.'

'Are you sure?'

'_Yes_,' Grace snarled, her eyes snapping open to glare at him.

'Okay,' Charlie said defensively. 'Well if you're ready then off you go…'

* * *

'_I can see…I can see the top of its head. It's almost clear. Come on. I can see, I can see it. Okay. You're almost there. You're so close. You're so close. Ready? Ready? Come on. One more. Go, push! Push, push, push, push, push! Yeah, come on!'_

* * *

The sound of a baby's cries rent the stale, dusty air.

'It's a girl!' Charlie said ecstatically. 'You have a girl!'

Grace tried to sit up, her arms reaching towards her daughter.

'Let me see her.' She demanded. 'Give her to me!'

Charlie handed the tiny yowling form to her and tucked a towel in around the infant's body.

He sat back, exhausted, watching Grace as she stared at the baby in her arms as though hardly believing that it was all over – but then she looked up and smiled at him and he couldn't help but smile back. In that moment when she had looked up and her face had glowed with happiness he had almost been able to believe that it was Claire and Aaron all over again – the way it should have been, with him holding her hand through the contractions and not Kate…

'What's her name?' he asked vaguely, his head felt like it was full of helium – like he was on the worlds biggest high.

Grace's smile fell and she looked back down at her daughter for a moment before muttering something.

'Sorry, what?'

Grace looked up again and her smile grew tentatively as tears leaked from the corners of her eyes.

'Her name is Hayley.'


	7. The Other

Title: The Other – 06 – The Other  
Original post date: 8th May 2006  
Spoilers: set from about episode 14 of the new season, from there its just spec and my muse having some fun  
Summary: Charlie, unable to cope with Claire's estrangement any longer, sets off into the jungle alone. But after a month of pain and hardships, he stumbles across something he wasn't ever expecting to find out there…  
Disclaimer: Isn't mine, never has been, never will be and I promise I'm not making any money – writing fanfiction is simply for my own self-satisfaction.

* * *

It was almost midday and Grace was still asleep, exhausted. Hayley however, seemed loathe to sleep, and Charlie had gently peeled the fussing infant off her mothers chest and taken it upon himself to watch her for a while so that Grace could get some well needed rest. He hadn't realised that "a while" would turn out to be half the day.

But Hayley was asleep now, warm and snug in the crook of his arm as he poured Grace a bowl of cereal one handed. Sneaking back down the corridor, he poked his head around the door.

'Grace!' he hissed. 'Grace!'

Her eyes blinked open almost immediately. Charlie held up the bowl and gestured it towards her. 'You want something to eat?'

Grace pushed herself up slowly and held her hands out. Charlie obligingly came into the room and went to hand her the bowl but instead, Grace contrarily reached for her daughter.

Charlie frowned. 'Come on Grace, I just got her to go to sleep. How about you eat something first? And then you can hold her.'

'I want to hold her now,' Grace's outstretched fingertips brushed Hayley's blanket feebly. 'Give her to me Charlie.'

'She's been awake all morning,' Charlie firmly pressed the bowl of cereal into her hands and grudgingly, Grace took it and began to pick at its contents. 'And so have I for that matter, so we're going to go have a kip in the other room. When you've finished eating you can come and wake me up and then you can take her if you really want to.'

'What if she needs feeding?' Grace said around a mouthful of cereal.

'Then she'll wake me up by crying,' Charlie said exasperatedly. 'Look, Grace, I'm completely stuffed okay? I'm taking Hayley for a nap.'

Grace didn't respond, her mouth full of cereal and Charlie took this as his cue to leave.

His feet felt as heavy as lead as he trod down the corridor, through the kitchen and then finally into the living area. Settling down in one of the chairs, he made sure his arms were secure around the bundle in his arms before shutting his eyes with a long sigh. The sound seemed to fill the room and echo around the corners of the doorway…

_He was sitting on the beach, just down and away from the camp, guitar in his hands as he strummed it idly, his head bobbing as chords stumbled into the empty air. Before him, the ocean sparkled a peculiar, misty blue._

_Overhead he heard gulls calling – an unusual phenomenon here on the island – but he ignored them and their screeching calls, focusing instead on the swell of the ocean in front of him. Several waves broke against the shore as he watched and then he turned his head to look behind him._

_Claire was sitting a little further up the beach and a little closer to the jungle than he was; her legs were long and pale, her feet constantly shifting against the gritty sand as he watched her readjust the blue swaddle of cloth in her arms – Aaron. Charlie paused to watch her for a moment before turning his eyes back to the ocean._

'_You don't have to worry about her anymore,' said Locke's scornful voice. Charlie turned around perplexedly and saw Grace sitting next to him – only her voice was Locke's. 'She's fine without you.' Grace continued. 'You have me now – and Hayley.'_

_Charlie looked down at his guitar only it had turned into Hayley._

'_Doesn't Claire miss me at all?'_

'_Of course she doesn't,' Grace said, still in Locke's voice. 'She'd have come looking for you – she'd have _found _you by now if she missed you enough.'_

'_Grace…'_

_But Charlie never got to say anything else because Grace's mouth opened wide and she was making the ear blistering sound of metal scraping on metal…_

'Grace?'

Charlie looked around, confused for a moment before realising where he was.

Hayley was still sleeping peacefully on, apparently oblivious to the sharp jerk Charlie had given as he woke up. Hearing the distant thus of footsteps in the main corridor, Charlie grudgingly stood up and crept into the kitchen. Grace obviously wanted Hayley.

But as he was about to walk into the kitchen Charlie paused to listen to the footfalls a little more carefully. He frowned heavily – there was no way Grace made that much noise when she was walking. Hardly even realising that he still had Hayley in his arms, Charlie peeked around the edge of the kitchen door and nearly had a heart attack.

There was a man, tall and thickset with his hand on the door to the sleeping quarters. As Charlie watched, he pushed the door open and stepped inside. There was a muffled scream from inside and Charlie's insides tightened painfully as Grace's panicked voice echoed out of the room and into the corridor.

'Who are you?'

'Who are _you_?' a gruff, carrying voice answered. 'I was told that my predecessor was a male.'

'Your…your predecessor?'

'Rainier? Edward Rainier?'

'Edward? I-I don't know any Edward…'

'You're lying to me.'

'I-I-I…'

'Where is Edward Rainier?'

'I…don't…'

'You crashed here didn't you? You're not one of us.'

'I don't know what you're…'

'How many of you are there?'

'J-just me.'

'Are you sure?'

'Y-yes, just me. I'm alone. I've been alone for a long time now…'

'How did you find this place?'

'I-I-I…'

Grace seemed to be losing composure by the second. Heart thundering in his chest, Charlie crept back away from the door and then bolted into the living area. Hands fumbling, he tucked Hayley safely into a corner of the couch and then frantically upended his bag. Once he had found what he was looking for, he crept back out into the corridor.

Trying not to feel foolish – he pressed himself against the wall and slid along it, both eyes on the open door through which he could hear the man still drilling Grace and her hesitant, terrified answers.

'Why are you lying down? You look sick.'

'I-I just had a baby.'

If Charlie hadn't been so terrified, he would have rolled his eyes. _Of all the things to say…_

'A baby?'

'Yes.'

'Well where is it?'

'I-I…it – well you see…'

'I'm growing tired of your games girl.'

'It…it died.'

Charlie let out a long slow exhalation of breath, wondering what the man would ask now.

'I'm sorry,'

'Thank you.'

'How did you get pregnant? And so young…'

'Erm…'

Steeling himself, Charlie waited for Grace to answer. The moment stretched longer and longer – something had to give…

'I…see…' the man said delicately.

Charlie heard him take a slow, ominous step and then Grace began to gabble madly.

'No. No-no-no-no…see here…I…'

Charlie took several quick steps down the corridor slammed the door open. Feeling more than little foolish raised his gun and said, in as threatening a voice as he could muster, 'If you take _one_ more step, I'll blow your head off.'

'Charlie!' Grace gasped. Charlie ignored her as the man before her whirled around, his eyes bulging.

'Who the hell are _you_?'

'Funny, I was about to ask you the same question,' Charlie said grimly, taking in the mans attire – as normal as his own. 'What are you doing here?'

'I'm here to take over the research project,' the man said bluntly. 'From Edward Rainier, who I'm guessing is…' he glanced at the gun in Charlie's hands. '…Indisposed?'

'I don't know who Edward Rainier is,' Charlie said truthfully. 'But I do know that whoever you are, you are not going anywhere near Grace. She's been through one helluva time and…'

'She just told me that she was alone here,' the man said, sounding almost bored with the conversation. 'And then here you are, pointing a gun at me.' Grace and Charlie shared a look. 'She just told me that she recently had a baby and that it died. Under the previous trend, that should mean that there really is a baby somewhere in this facility.'

'There's no baby,' Charlie said firmly. 'And there's no Rainier here either. You're going to have to leave.'

'Leave?' the mans eyebrows puzzled dangerously. 'Oh no, I think not. It is _you_ who will be leaving.'

'What's that supposed to mean?' Charlie said aggressively. 'In case you hadn't noticed, there's two of us and only of you and – oh yeah, by the way? I'm pointing a gun at you.'

'First off,' the man held up a hand to count off on his fingers, still looking supremely bored. 'I don't think this one – ' he jerked his head at Grace. ' – Is in any fit state to help you fight me. Secondly, for all I know, that gun of yours is either fake or empty…'

Charlie pointed the gun at one of the spare mattresses and squeezed the trigger. There was an explosion of foam and stuffing and the man stared at the ruined mattress for a moment before turning back to Charlie. 'Well there's that question answered. Thirdly…'

'Thirdly, I don't have time for this kind of bull,' Charlie took a step closer. 'So unless you have something productive to say to me I suggest you shut up, get out and never come back.'

'_Thirdly_,' the man glared. Charlie rolled his eyes. 'I suggest that you take your own advice by shutting up, getting out and never coming back and I suggest you do it _now_, before the rest of my comrades arrive. They will not allow you to live – not after seeing this place.'

Charlie's mouth went as dry as the Sahara.

'You're bluffing,'

'Am I?' the man inspected his fingernails intently, as bored as ever. 'I guess you're either going to be very right or very wrong in about…oh an hour or so I'd say. Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to go and see if I can find something to eat – I'm guessing the store room is still well stocked?'

Charlie felt his tongue tie itself into a knot. He raised the gun a little higher, his hands shaking. The man raised an eyebrow and laughed coldly. 'Oh really. You think you're going to shoot me? You've probably never even _held_ a gun before.' He glanced carelessly at Grace, still cowering in the corner of her bed and then smirked back at Charlie. 'Can I hazard a guess that it was you who got her pregnant?'

Something exploded in Charlie's brain – all of the tension that had been building up between him and the other occupants of this room gave a sudden, explosive crescendo and he'd pulled the trigger before he'd even registered what he'd done.

The man took a stumbling step backwards and then crumpled to the floor. Grace stared at him for a long moment and then looked up to Charlie, who was still staring at the body on the floor, completely shocked.

'I do not know if he was lying or telling the truth,' she said after a moment, her voice soft. 'But if he's telling the truth then we need to move. Now.'


	8. The Broken Road

Title: The Other – 07 – The Broken Road  
Original post date: 19th May 2006  
Spoilers: set from about episode 14 of the new season, from there its just spec and my muse having some fun  
Summary: Charlie, unable to cope with Claire's estrangement any longer, sets off into the jungle alone. But after a month of pain and hardships, he stumbles across something he wasn't ever expecting to find out there…  
Disclaimer: Isn't mine, never has been, never will be and I promise I'm not making any money – writing fanfiction is simply for my own self-satisfaction.  
Authors Note: I promise, promise, PROMISE that there will be C/C interaction in the next chapter.

* * *

'Why didn't you tell me that you had a gun?'

'What?' Charlie looked up vaguely from his bag into which he was cramming all manner of things. He fumbled underneath his blankets for the book he had filched from the library and shoved it in on top.

'You had a gun all along and you never even told me,' Grace was busily rushing hither and thither in the kitchen, gathering together a collection of food and full water containers. 'Why would you do that?'

'Because I wasn't sure if you were one of Them,' Charlie pushed his fringe out of his eyes for the millionth time. 'I didn't want you to know I had it in case I needed to use it – which as it turned out, I did.'

Grace frowned at him as he threw his pack onto his shoulders and stowed the gun in the back of his jeans before picking up Hayley from the corner of the couch and striding into the kitchen.

'Are you ready yet?' he asked impatiently. 'Because you were the one who was panicking about being found and we have…' he checked his watch. 'About fifteen minutes to get as far away from here as we can.'

Grace silently scooped up her own bag and then hurried to retrieve Hayley. Once her daughter was in her arms, she offered nothing to Charlie other than a view of her retreating back. Charlie followed her down the corridor, wishing that he could take some of the records with him but knowing ultimately, that they would only slow them down – especially if they had to make a quick getaway.

They exited the hatch, silent as ghosts in the still afternoon air. The sun was just starting to think about setting and it was pleasantly warm in the dappled sunlight.

'Shall we wait to see if they show up?' Charlie whispered. 'Or just go?'

'Your people are almost a months walk away yes?' Grace breathed.

Charlie nodded. The utter stillness of the jungle was beginning to creep him out.

'Then we must move now,' Grace whispered. 'We must move now and as quickly as possible if we are to cover as much ground as possible before nightfall.'

'And before They get here,' Charlie muttered to himself.

Grace smiled weakly in agreement and then gestured for Charlie to take the lead which he did so with a certain amount of trepidation.

'Erm,' he glanced back at her. 'I don't suppose you know which way the beach is do you?'

Grace rolled her eyes and pointed. 'That way.'

'Right,' feeling self-conscious, Charlie began to pick his way through the trees, occasionally changing course to make it easier for Grace. She still seemed fatigued from the night before and had to stop often to catch her breath.

'I don't understand what is wrong with me!' she exclaimed in a vehement hiss when Charlie made her stop for the sixth time. 'I used to be able to go faster than this!'

'There's nothing wrong with you,' Charlie explained patiently. 'You just had a baby is all. You're exhausted and sore and I think she's actually hungry again…'

Grace glanced down at Hayley, mewling quietly in her arms and sighed before pulling her top down so that it rested underneath her breast; completely oblivious to the reddening of Charlie's cheeks or the way he looked away hurriedly.

'Do you think that I could walk and nurse at the same time?' Grace wondered out loud.

Charlie shrugged, still looking adamantly away. 'I wouldn't recommend it. If you tripped and fell you'd do quite a bit of damage.'

'I'd do quite a bit of damage if I feel anyway,' Grace countered. 'With Hayley in my arms.'

The two of them fell into silence.

'Why'd you call her Hayley anyway?'

'I'm sorry?'

Charlie repeated his question and actually turned to look at Grace. She looked sad beyond anything he'd seen and a wash of guilt came over him.

'I'm sorry,' he said quickly. 'I didn't mean…if you don't want to…'

'No,' Grace said firmly, flicking a tear away with her finger. 'No it is all right Charlie. Hayley was my mother's name.'

Charlie nodded and turned away again.

The sun had long since set by the time they settled down to make camp. Charlie lit a fire and the two of them huddled around it, wrapped in their separate blankets and their separate worries.

* * *

'Charlie?'

'Yeah?'

'Are we going in circles?'

'Uh…'

'We're going in circles. Aren't we?'

'Uh…yeah.'

'It is also getting quite dark…'

'Should we stop?'

'Yes I think we should.'

It was three weeks since Charlie had stumbled across Grace and the hatch; it was two weeks since they had fled from the Star and it was just over one week since they had reached the beach and begun to follow it.

Except for the detour they had taken inland in order to skirt a small, rocky bay fringed with tall cliffs. A small rocky bay that had turned out to be not quite as small as they had originally thought.

'What food have we got left?' Charlie asked as he sat down with a groan, extending his legs out in front of him and leaning up against the nearest tree. Grace automatically handed Hayley to him as she lit a fire and then began to hunt through her bag. Hayley gave a disconsolate sort of cough and both Charlie and Grace eyed her worriedly.

'She seems to be getting sicker,' Grace fretted as she withdrew a small selection of slightly squashed fruits and a half empty, crumpled box of cereal.

'She'll be okay,' Charlie said vaguely, his attention focused on the dozing infant in his arms rather than the food, which Grace was placing before him. 'Aaron's been sick loads of times. It's what babies do – they get sick a lot. Builds up their immune system. That's why they have breast milk, it helps with the immune system again.'

'How do you know so much about these things?' Grace asked, cutting open a ripe mango and burying her face into it.

'Looking after Aaron,' Charlie said vaguely. 'I did quite a bit of that – for a while.'

'Why did you stop?'

Charlie paused to swaddle Hayley's blankets a little tighter before he answered, sighing heavily.

'Do you know what Heroin is Grace?'

Grace shook her head and put her piece of mango down.

'Right. Great. Well Heroin is…it's a drug. Something that people take to…well they do it for lots of different reasons. To look cool, to feel included with a group, sometimes it's just for the buzz, the high that they get off it.

'I was a Heroin addict when we crashed here. I don't really want to go into how that happened but yeah. So I was an addict. I had a bag of the stuff in my shoe but that was it – that's all I had with me. So not long after we got here, I began to run out. Then I found out – ages later, after I'd gone through withdrawal from it and all that fun stuff – that there was this plane loaded with the bloody stuff. It was all in statues of the Virgin Mary. You know who that is?'

'Yes. My mother used to read the Bible to me. He didn't like it though. He said that…'

'Yeah, yeah, cool. So anyways, I took one. I dunno why…it was just…I didn't need it. I just needed to know that it was there – you know, in case I did need it. But I didn't. So anyway, Claire finds out about the drugs and she freaks out, kicks me out of her tent thinking that I'm a danger to her, that I'm a danger to Aaron when really I wasn't using at all. Then I started having these weird dreams, these nightmares. I started stealing Aaron from her when I was asleep – you know, like sleepwalking? She thought I was using again. And then I tried to baptise Aaron but she stopped me again. She didn't speak to me after that. I think she thought I was trying to drown him or something.'

Charlie gazed into the sputtering fire between the two of them, not even really seeing the flames.

'And then it all got too much. I couldn't stand being around her all the time – seeing her laughing and being happy and safe without me. Everything I became here, on this island, was because of her. She changed me – I would never have befriended someone like her back in the real world. But here…she needed help and I helped her. I don't know how to _not_ help her anymore, to the point where I couldn't even see when I was hurting and not helping. And that's where I messed up.'

This was more information than Charlie had divulged in nearly a month of knowing Grace and she was eager to hear more. She hurriedly licked mango juice off her fingers and took Hayley back, allowing Charlie to select his own mango.

'Tell me about her,' she said softly, probing delicately. 'Claire. What is she like?'

Charlie continued to stare into space for a moment, his fingers toying with the mango in his hands, before he spoke, his voice barely more than a murmur.

'She's the most beautiful person I've ever met. She's like an angel – all long golden hair and the biggest, brightest smile I've ever seen. She seems to shine from inside her – like she's got an inner glow. She makes me want to be good, to settle down, start a family, feel comfortable. But she's not all sweetness,' Charlie chuckled reminiscently. 'Oh no. She's got a stubborn streak in her, which is worse than mine. And she's very strong willed – independent I guess you'd call her. Which is why she's always been so unwilling to accept my help. Probably why I ended up forcing it on her in the end. Oh God – and her accent! I love it. The way she says my name, it cracks me up.'

'How does she say it?' Grace's lips curved into a smile when Charlie adopted a high-pitched, effeminate voice and chanted his own name with the best Australian accent he could muster.

'Chahlie, Chahlie, Chahlie, Chahlie, Chahlie…'

Grace tittered appreciatively and even Charlie had to chuckle.

'It sounds better when she says it,' he said apologetically but then the laughter died from his face. Grace went very still. 'And now I'm coming back again.' He said soberly. 'Back home after nearly two months. She's probably taken up residence with somebody else by now. That'd be just my luck eh?'

He poked the fire moodily. Grace didn't say anything however and after a moment, Charlie began to speak again.

'I miss her. I've been missing her since she kicked me out. But I don't think she'll have missed me at all. She forgot me so easily before – when Ethan took her. And then again when she wasn't talking to me.' He laughed bitterly and threw his half eaten mango away into the trees. 'Figures that I'd need her more than she needs me.'

The fire crackled as night fell around them, enveloping their camp with shadows and darkness.


	9. The Return

Title: The Other – 08 – The Return  
Original post date: 29th May 2006  
Spoilers: set from about episode 14 of the new season, from there its just spec and my muse having some fun  
Summary: Charlie, unable to cope with Claire's estrangement any longer, sets off into the jungle alone. But after a month of pain and hardships, he stumbles across something he wasn't ever expecting to find out there…  
Disclaimer: Isn't mine, never has been, never will be and I promise I'm not making any money – writing fanfiction is simply for my own self-satisfaction.

* * *

'Can you smell that?'

Charlie raised his nose to the mid afternoon breeze and sniffed energetically. His face was gaunt again – two months of near starving in the jungle split up by a weeks worth of good eating hadn't done much for him.

'What exactly am I meant to be smelling Grace? Because all I can smell is salt. And sand. And water. And jungle. And…well that's really about it.'

'_Smoke_ Charlie.'

Charlie's eyes immediately darted to the jungle. He scanned down the beach and then beyond. His stomach jolted with excitement. He could _just_ make out a plume of smoke, maybe four kilometres away, rising above the canopy.

His face split into a wide grin.

'It's them.'

* * *

The first person they saw was Sayid, fiddling with some form of electronics at his solitary fire, taking the occasional sip from his water bottle.

Charlie called his name and watched as Sayid's head went up like a shot. His piercingly dark eyes found Charlie and then he leapt to his feet, his face contorting into something close to a smile as he ran to him and threw his arms around his shoulders.

'Charlie! My God – we all thought you were dead!'

'I nearly was,' Charlie admitted, unable to stop grinning. 'A couple of times actually. But I'm back now.'

'I am glad to hear it,' Sayid said, but his smile froze in place as Grace stepped up behind Charlie, holding her daughter close to her chest.

'What?' Charlie glanced over his shoulder, then gave a loud 'oh!' of comprehension. 'It's okay Sayid. This is Grace. I found her,' Grace glanced pointedly at him and Charlie looked bashful. 'Well…actually she found me. She took me in, that's where I've been the past few months. Living in another one of the other hatches.'

Sayid's eyes roamed over the tall girl before him. She returned his gaze unflinchingly and then extricated a hand to shake his.

'Hello Sayid,' Grace said slowly. Sayid took her hand warily and shook it before turning back to Charlie.

'Jack will want to know that you are back.'

Charlie ignored this. 'Do you know where Claire is?'

Sayid pursed his lips, trying not to smile. 'I'm not certain. I saw Jack only ten minutes ago just a little further up the beach but I haven't seen Claire today. I'm sure you'll get to see her soon enough.'

Charlie allowed himself to be led down the beach, Grace latched onto his sleeve and refused to let go but he didn't pay her any heed. As they walked, people came rushing out to greet him and exclaim over the young girl with the baby. Who was she? Where did she come from? Was she one of the Others?

'Charlie!'

'Where y'been?'

'Hey it's Charlie!'

'Well look who's back!'

'Hey Chassy!'

Suddenly, Charlie felt like the most popular man in the world. He could scarcely believe that he'd been dreading this day. By the time he got to Jack's tent, he had a small entourage of people crowded around him, asking questions, wanting to know where he'd been. Kate even went as far as running up and throwing her arms around his neck, a wide smile on her tear-streaked face.

But where was Claire? Charlie's head swivelled to and fro looking for her, even as Jack barraged him with questions about where he'd been, chastised him for what he'd done, began to check Grace and Hayley over…

Rose was at his elbow, tutting at all the weight he'd lost, Kate was still next to him, beaming, Jin was grinning at him from across the way and countless other faces were smiling at him, pressing in from all sides to see him...

And then quite suddenly he saw her. She was holding Aaron and was walking and talking with Eko. Charlie tried to push his way out and called her name. His voice, however, was lost in the general hubbub.

'Claire!' he bellowed her name again and again, trying to push through the crowd, becoming increasingly frustrated...

Claire was frowning at the crowd of people, obviously wondering what was going on but then a moment later, Eko saw Charlie and his face split into a smile. He turned to Claire and tapped her on the shoulder, pointing towards Charlie and said something in her ear. She looked over sharply and quite suddenly, their eyes met.

Her jaw dropped.

And then next moment she had thrust Aaron into Eko's arms and was sprinting across the sand towards him. Charlie pushed several people out of his way, not even caring if he shoved anyone over and then he stood there, his arms open as Claire fairly flew the last few steps towards him and threw her arms around his neck.

Charlie staggered backwards as he took the brunt of Claire's weight and he swung her around in a full circle, both of them laughing wildly. The sense of joy was almost overwhelming – Charlie squeezed his eyes shut and just revelled in the feel, the smell of her. After almost two full rotations, he set her back onto her feet and the two of them rocked from side to side for a moment before Claire drew back, her hands resting lightly on his chest.

'You rotten sod!' she chastised him and then she did something that nobody had been expecting, and slapped him hard across the face. 'You've had everyone so worried! We thought you were dead!'

'I nearly was,' Charlie vision was far too blurred by his tears to focus on her properly. He blinked heavily and tried to wipe them away, feeling self-conscious, before he realised that she was crying as well. 'More times than I can count. But I'm here now.'

Claire was biting her lip, trying her best to control her own tears but finding it impossible. She gave something that wasn't quite a sob but wasn't exactly a laugh either and then leant up to kiss him warmly.

It was nothing like the kiss he had given her when he had left – that had been bitter and sad and had left nothing but a feeling of melancholy behind. But _this_ kiss, surrounded by so many smiles and happy faces, and with the joy being reunited fresh on their skin…

It felt like home.

Vaguely, Charlie heard Kate say 'Didn't she just _slap_ him a minute ago?' but he ignored her and focused instead on Claire, on the fell of her arms around his neck and her lips, _finally_ against his…

It was Claire who finally pulled away. Her hands lingered on the front of his shirt and she smiled up at him, suddenly shy.

'I-I gather this means that you're talking to me again then?' Charlie stammered as Eko nudged Claire and she took her son back, looking slightly dazed.

'Um…I guess so, yeah.'

But suddenly Charlie was frowning and he touched his cheek.

'Did you _slap me_?'

Claire looked utterly astonished. 'Did I?'

'Charlie…'

'Hang on, I'm just…' Charlie swatted at the hand on his sleeve but then stopped in recognition of the voice and turned to see Grace at his shoulder looking decidedly nervous. In all the excitement, he had completely forgotten about her. '_Oh._ Sorry! Erm, Claire? This is Grace. Grace, Claire.'

Claire's eyes flickered over the younger girls face and then onto the baby in her arms but next moment she had extricated a hand and extended it towards her.

'Hi,'

Grace nervously shook her hand but after a moment she offered Claire a smile. 'I am very pleased to meet you. Charlie talked of you very often.'

'Did he just?' Claire glanced at him, a teasing smile on her lips and his ears burned red.

'Yes,' Grace said, unabashed. 'Once I got him talking he could not stop.' She peered at the bundle in Claire's arms. 'And this must be your son?'

'Yeah,' Claire hitched him a little higher in her arms. 'This is Aaron.'

Grace frowned. 'I thought his name was Erin?'

Claire frowned back, looking more puzzled than upset. 'No, no it's definitely Aaron.'

'Oh,' Grace pondered this for a moment and then opened her mouth again. 'It must just be the way that Charlie says his name. It sounds like Erin when he says it.'

'I _am_ right here,' Charlie pointed out.

'Okay yeah and as fun as all this is, I _really_ need to kick your ass Charlie,' Jack interjected, steering him firmly into his tent. Claire, Grace, Kate and Sayid followed as everyone else dispersed slowly, buzzing excitedly.

Jack waited until Charlie was seated before offering him a drink bottle. Charlie drank greedily before offering the bottle to Grace who was standing, restless and uncomfortable. Kate and Sayid hovered in the doorway and Claire sat down next to Charlie, shoulder-to-shoulder and peered sideways at him, waiting for him to speak.

Jack leant forward expectantly, his dark eyes puzzling. 'So what exactly happened out there Charlie?'

It took the better part of an hour for Charlie to tell his tale, with occasional input from Grace and by the time he'd finished, the sky had gone dark and the torches had been lit up and down the beach.

When he reached the point where the man had invaded the hatch however, Charlie found himself unable to continue and had instead skipped over the shooting and straight on into the trek home.

Jack's brow furrowed when Charlie fell silent at the end. 'What I don't understand is why you decided to set off home right after Hayley was born. Wouldn't you have waited a day or two for Grace to rest first?'

'The reason we left,' Grace explained swiftly, ignoring Charlie's frown. 'Was because a man came into the hatch. One of the Others. He said that there were more of them coming to take over the hatch and so Charlie shot him and we fled.'

'So do they know that one of ours was over the line?' Jack ran a hand over his head, looking thoroughly depressed.

'I suppose so,' Grace shrugged. 'I know they were following us for some of the way back.'

'WHAT?' Charlie looked at Grace, aghast. 'You never told me that!'

Grace looked surprised. 'I thought that you knew!'

'If I'd known we were being followed I wouldn't have come back here!' Charlie's voice rose suddenly. 'Dammit Grace! The Others are going to know where we are now! They'll come and they'll…they'll…' his voice trailed off into a hopeless sigh and Jack shook his head.

'Never mind Charlie. They probably already knew where we were anyway – we just need to hope that they don't get pissed off at us for crossing the line.' He rose to his feet. 'As it is, I think you both need rest before anything else – you're both exhausted.'

Charlie allowed himself to be led to a blanket and a bowl of fruit whilst Claire and Grace put Aaron and Hayley to sleep together, but he refused to sleep. The thought of the Others coming _here_, because he had led them here – no matter if it had been an accident. What would they do? What would be the punishment for crossing the line?

Angrily, he ground his hands into the sand and it wasn't until dawn came that he finally fell asleep, exhausted from countless inner diatribes.

When Grace found him he was fast asleep, his face scrunched up in misery whilst he slept. She felt a curious sensation of déjà vu as she covered him in a blanket and brushed his fringe out of his eyes – unaware that Claire was watching silently from her shelter.


	10. The Battle

Title: The Other – 09 – The Battle  
Rating: PG-13 for themes  
Spoilers: set from about episode 14 of the new season, from there its just spec and my muse having some fun  
Summary: Charlie, unable to cope with Claire's estrangement any longer, sets off into the jungle alone. But after a month of pain and hardships, he stumbles across something he wasn't ever expecting to find out there…  
Disclaimer: Isn't mine, never has been, never will be and I promise I'm not making any money – writing fanfiction is simply for my own self-satisfaction.

* * *

When Charlie finally woke the next day, he was surprised to find that he had company.

'Mornin' Chassy,'

'Sawyer?' Charlie sat up and gratefully accepted a bowl of fish. It had gone cold now but that hardly mattered to him – he probably would have eaten it raw. As he shovelled it into his mouth he began to ask questions. 'What you doing here?'

'Jus' found out this mornin' that you got back,' Sawyer said, stretching out comfortably on the sand next to him. 'Was nappin' yesterday when you got back – someone was gossiping about you this mornin' so I thought I'd come say howdy. See what you'd been up to.'

Charlie chewed his fish thoughtfully. 'Lots of running around. Not much food. Found another hatch though – and this girl who crashed here when she was little.'

'Yeah I heard about her,' Sawyer snagged a bit of fish. 'Seen her too. I don't think your girl much likes this new one being on her turf.'

'My…? Oh! You mean Claire?'

'Well if she ain't your girl then I dunno whose girl she is,' Sawyer raised his eyebrows at Charlie. 'Didn't you kiss her yesterday? Cause that's what I heard.'

'Yeah,' Charlie said, still a little off put by Claire being referred to as "his" girl. 'Well, yeah, yeah we did. But she was the one who kissed me.'

'What, you didn't kiss her back?' Sawyer said incredulously.

'Of course I kissed her back!' Charlie protested immediately. 'What sort of a prat do you think I am?'

Sawyer held up his hands. 'All right! All right Dickens! Calm down would you? Geez…'

Charlie picked out the final morsels of fish moodily. 'I should go see Grace. She'll probably have a mood swing and freak everyone out.'

'I think she's with the good Doctor,' Sawyer drawled as he clambered to his feet. 'I'll see you around Charlie. You'll have to tell me all about your grand adventure sometime.'

'Sure,' Charlie stood as well, shrugging off his blanket. 'See you Sawyer.'

As he walked towards Jack's tent, Charlie had to laugh to himself – he'd never thought that he'd end up being mates with Sawyer of all people. Even now, after he'd been gone for nearly two months, he had been practically civil in welcoming him back…

'Charlie!'

Charlie frowned as he turned around. _What now?_ But then his frown faded into a smile as Claire came bounding up to him, holding Aaron.

'Morning,' he said cheerfully as she beamed at him and readjusted Aaron in her arms.

'Hi,' she said breathlessly, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear. 'I've been looking for you! Do you want to take a walk or something?'

'I'd love to,' Claire beamed. 'But…' he began. Claire's face fell slightly. 'Probably not right now. I was actually just on my way to find Grace. She's probably getting interrogated by Jack or something and…well, I need to make sure that she's okay. You understand right?'

Claire's face fell even further and when she spoke her voice was rapid and slightly higher than usual. 'Oh. Okay. Sure. Just let me know when you are free so that we can catch up okay?'

As she turned to leave Charlie caught her arm.

'Claire…its not that I don't want to spend time with you…' Claire regarded him quite silently. 'It's just that… well Grace has been alone for a long time and… well, I have to look after her. And Hayley.'

Claire didn't answer, only shrugged and smiled, although there was something forced about it. 'I know. Its okay Charlie, we can talk later. I'll see you around okay?'

Fuming to himself and knowing that he'd just said all the completely wrong things, Charlie continued down the beach only to find Jack quite alone in his tent.

'Where's Grace?' Charlie asked immediately, frowning worriedly.

Jack glanced up. 'What? Oh hey Charlie. Good to see you're up and about.'

'_Where's Grace?'_

'Would you calm down Charlie? She just left actually, about five minutes ago. I think she was looking for you.'

Charlie swore irritably as he turned and hurried back out onto the beach, his head swivelling madly. Slowly, he became more aware of his surroundings, listening and looking intently for something, some clue…

Was that a baby crying?

Was that…_two_ babies crying?

Was that _two_ babies crying in the _same place?_

Charlie began to walk very quickly...

* * *

'So how old is she?'

Grace glanced sideways at Claire who had picked Aaron up out of his cradle and was absently rocking him now, patting him rhythmically whilst he wailed. Grace tried to imitate what Claire was doing and was pleased when Hayley quieted a little. She seemed to know a few tricks, Claire, and Grace was picking up a lot even from just sitting and chatting, watching her.

'Hayley is a month old now.'

'It goes quick, doesn't it? Claire said conversationally. 'Aaron's about two and a half months now. I guess that means we got pregnant at around about the same time – sort of February, March? The beginning of the year at least.'

Grace shrugged. 'I suppose so.'

'So obviously you had to deliver her by yourself?' Claire shifted Aaron into a more comfortable position without even thinking. 'That must have been stressful.' She laughed a little but she looked a little wary nonetheless, unsure of how Grace would react to that particular memory. Her own labour had been painful enough for her to secretly swear off having any more children – unless of course she was back on the mainland and she had a _lot_ of painkillers.

But then Grace half frowned, half smiled. 'No. Charlie delivered my baby. He remembered how to from when you had Aaron.'

Claire opened her mouth to speak.

Then she closed it again.

'Ch-Charlie delivered your baby?'

'That is right,' Grace said comfortably. 'He did very well I think – under the circumstances. I was very frightened.'

'Um…'

Claire and Grace both glanced up. Charlie was standing not more than five metres away looking decidedly awkward. He waved at them both, looking more than a little foolish.

'There you are!' Grace stood up immediately, looking pleased. As she spoke she strode forward and pressed Hayley into Charlie's arms, smiling endearingly. 'Do you think you can take Hayley please? For a little while only of course. I need to wash up a little. You understand.'

Charlie watched her hurry off, a blank expression on his face before turning to Claire who stared back at him, just as non-plussed.

'Do you wanna go for that walk now?' Charlie ventured hopefully. 'Maybe it'll calm these two down a little.' He nodded at Aaron and then at the yowling bundle in his own arms.

Claire's brow furrowed but she nodded all the same. 'Sure. Just down the beach?'

Charlie jerked his head in affirmation and the two of them set off, feeling slightly awkward with the whole situation.

'So,' Charlie ventured after a while. 'Aaron's gotten a lot bigger.'

Claire glanced at him. 'It's been two months Charlie. Of course he's gotten bigger.'

'I know,' Charlie said peevishly. 'I was just making an observation. No need to bite my head off.'

They continued on in a quietly irritable silence for another ten metres before Claire simply stopped walking. Charlie took several steps before he realised and he paused to turn back and say her name, a question in his voice.

'I thought you were dead,' she said flatly, staring at the sand. 'I thought that you were dead and it was all because of me.'

Charlie didn't respond and Claire began to brush angrily at the tears collecting on her cheeks. 'I'm sorry Charlie. I'm sorry that I didn't stop you from running.'

'Why?' his throat felt dry.

Claire finally looked up, her eyes streaming. 'Because I missed you, okay? I was worried about you and I missed you and now you're back and I've barely spent three minutes with you because you're too busy looking after somebody else!'

'I told you,' Charlie said exasperatedly. 'I need to look after her. She's just a kid Claire and yeah I know she's been here her whole life but she's still just a kid.'

Claire shook her head silently and Charlie scowled deeply, his anger rising. 'Do you know how she even got pregnant in the first place?' he demanded. 'She was _raped_ Claire, by one of Them. She was going to have to give birth, by herself, with no one there. Do you remember how scared you were when you were in labour? Can you imagine doing that alone?'

'I'm sorry,' Claire said quietly, a bite of impatience in her voice now. 'I just thought that maybe we could talk, sort some things out you know? But if you have to look after Grace then I guess you have to look after her and there's nothing much I can do about it.'

The two of them stared at each other angrily for a moment before Claire dropped her eyes and focused instead on the ocean. Charlie took a hesitant step forwards, trying to catch her eye.

'Can I ask you a question?'

Claire didn't turn back to him and she didn't make eye contact. 'Shoot.'

'Why did you kiss me yesterday?'

Claire didn't answer but her eyes flickered down. Charlie peered a little closer, getting into her personal space, invading her thoughts with the low timbre of his voice.

'Was it just because you felt guilty?' he murmured. 'Or was it because you were relieved that I wasn't dead, that you could start again with a clean conscience?'

Claire turned her face to him and had barely opened her mouth, a look of reproachful tentativeness on her face when there was the sound of someone yelling from further back down the beach. Both of them glanced back and automatically began to move towards the gathering throng of people, their bewildered voices mingling with the waves.

As they drew closer, Grace detached from the crowd and rushed over to take her daughter from Charlie.

'There is a woman,' she whispered as she bundled Hayley comfortably in her arms. 'A wild woman and I think that she has been injured also.'

Charlie didn't leave room for pretence. He began to push through the crowd, ignoring Claire's protests and Grace's bewildered questioning. Sure enough, at the centre of the throng of people was Danielle Rousseau. She looked pale, almost sickly, and after a moment Charlie noticed that she was cradling her right arm against her chest. She seemed to be having an argument with Jack.

'-If you'll just let me set your arm…' Jack was saying exasperatedly.

'_No,'_ Rousseau said emphatically, looking quite mad. Her hair was even more all over the place than usual and her clothes were torn and ragged as though she had been dragged through a thicket of thorn bushes. 'I came here to deliver a message – to warn you.' She paused dramatically. 'The Others are coming.'

The crowd immediately began to protest.

'_Last_ time you came to warn us…'

'This is bullshit…'

'How do we even know…?'

'Didn't she steal Claire's baby…?'

'Why don't you just leave us alone? Freak!'

'Hey! Hey! Why don't we all just calm down huh?' Jack stepped forward angrily. 'Let the woman say her thing and _then_ we can deal with it okay?'

Rousseau fidgeted impatiently, her hand straying inexplicably to her rifle to worry the barrel. Charlie watched her carefully, unsure of what to think. She had certainly lied before – he had the scar on his head to prove it. He was just on the point of making an exit when Rousseau's eyes caught his. Her expression changed immediately, her eyes widened and Charlie felt the need to take a small step back as she raised a hand to point a trembling finger at him.

'You!' she shrieked. '_You_ are the reason they are coming!' And a moment later, Charlie found himself on the ground, his mouth full of sand and a fist in his gut.

Somebody yelled out, 'Jesus Christ!' and then Rousseau was pulled off him. Charlie lay there a moment longer before sitting up slowly, wiping a smear of blood off his lower lip as he did. He was surprised when he felt a warm hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Claire staring at Rousseau as though she wanted nothing more than to clout her with a two by four but was refraining because she had Aaron in her arms. Rousseau was the complete opposite to Claire's cool disdain however, she was still shrieking; spit flying from her mouth as she pointed feverishly at Charlie with her uninjured arm. She looked positively deranged.

'_He_ is the reason they are coming!' she repeated, over and over. 'He killed one of them, he did not cover his tracks, he was too clumsy…'

'Danielle,' Jack said firmly, his hands tight around her shoulders to keep her from injuring herself further. 'We've heard your message now, the Others are coming right? So now what we're going to do is go and set your arm okay?'

Rousseau looked agitated as she was led away and she glanced back at Charlie with every few steps. The passengers of 815 muttered darkly to each other as they made their way back to their shelters.

Charlie stood up, brushing sand off his jeans and tousling it out of his unkempt hair.

'Are you okay?' Claire asked, reaching out to examine his lip but Charlie brushed her hand aside, not wanting her to fuss. Claire seemed to take the hint because she fell silent as Grace came elbowing her way through the crowd.

'Who was that woman?' she demanded in a frightened whisper, her eyes still on Rousseau as Jack led her away. 'Was she on your plane? She has been here a long time hasn't she? Like me?'

'_Yes_ Grace,' Charlie said heavily. 'She's been here sixteen years. Don't listen to a word she says, she's certifiable.'

A frown creased Grace's face. 'Certifiable?'

'She's crazy,' Charlie clarified although he didn't look quite sure of himself as he shoved his hands in his pockets and scowled heavily. 'Nuts. Wacko. Insane. More than short the allotted amount of sandwiches for a decent picnic. Now, if you two ladies will excuse me, I'm going to go for a walk – by myself.'

And without another word he stalked off.

Claire glanced at Grace who was still watching Rousseau go, a look of horrified fascination on her face, and shook her head. She didn't have time to deal with this girl or try and figure out what was going on in her head. She hitched Aaron a little higher in her arms and set out after Charlie.


	11. The Infiltration

Title: The Other – 10 – The Infiltration  
Rating: PG-13 for themes  
Spoilers: set from about episode 14 of the new season, from there its just spec and my muse having some fun  
Summary: Charlie, unable to cope with Claire's estrangement any longer, sets off into the jungle alone. But after a month of pain and hardships, he stumbles across something he wasn't ever expecting to find out there…  
Disclaimer: Isn't mine, never has been, never will be and I promise I'm not making any money – writing fanfiction is simply for my own self-satisfaction.  
Authors Note: Short chapter I know but the next one will be longer (and hopefully written quicker than this one!) I had the most evil writers block for this chapter so I do hope its up to scratch!

* * *

When Claire finally found Charlie, he was brooding at the edge of the ocean, his jeans soaked up to the knees and his hands in his pockets. When she called his name he didn't look up but she saw the way his shoulders stiffened before he sighed and tilted his head away.

She waded in slowly, trying to keep herself steady, until she stood shoulder to shoulder with him. For a long minute they just stood there, the waves buffeting their ankles like liquid bumper cars.

'You're going to get sick,' Claire chided him, but there was no bite in her words. 'The waters cold and you're far too thin at the moment.'

Charlie didn't respond and Claire heaved a great sigh.

'Charlie…'

'_Don't_,' Charlie said, soft and firm and dangerous. 'Just… _don't_ Claire.'

Claire bit back a sudden sob and she turned her head to hide the tears that had sprung into her eyes. She hadn't thought that Charlie wouldn't even want to talk about what had just happened. He had always worn his heart on his sleeve and she could always tell when he was upset – even if he wouldn't admit that he was.

'You think Rousseau's right, don't you?' Claire's voice trembled miserably as she swiped an ineffectual hand at her tears. 'You think that she's right and that the Others are coming and that it's your fault.'

Charlie didn't answer at first and Claire turned to try and gauge his reaction, if any. Her own tears were still trickling down her cheeks and she was shocked to see that Charlie's shoulders were beginning to shake.

She didn't say anything further, just stood there and watched as he struggled to get his emotions under control. For almost a full minute, his face contorted into an ugly mask as he tried to stop crying and then eventually just gave up and began to swipe angrily at his face, taking deep, bubbling breaths. Claire reached a tentative hand to touch between his shoulder blades and her touch seemed to calm him. He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths as she began to rub his back in slow, soothing circles.

After several more minutes had passed, he turned his tear-smudged face to her and touched her arm, stilling the motion of it.

'I won't let Them hurt you,' he whispered. 'I'm not going to lose you again. Not again.'

He gazed fiercely at her for a moment before turning back to the horizon. Claire took a step closer and leant her head against his shoulder, Aaron gurgling disconsolately in her arms. Charlie's arms wove around her shoulders, slowly, oh so slowly, until he was holding her in his arms and then he pressed a kiss to her hair.

They stayed that way until the tide turned.

'Hello,'

Danielle lifted her head immediately, her sham of sleeping useless in the presence of whoever this was.

'Hello,' she returned in her slow, careful English.

The speaker was a young girl, barely as old as Alex would be she supposed, and she was holding a small bundle in her arms – a baby. Danielle ached at the sight but tried to act nonchalant. This girl was not from the plane – of that she was certain. No, she had been her a long time – perhaps almost as long as she herself had been.

'My name is Grace,' the girl said.

'My name is Danielle,' she responded.

They stared at each other for a moment longer and then Grace came fully into the tent, folding her legs underneath herself so that she could be at Rousseau's eye level.

'This is my daughter, Hayley,' Grace explained, showing Rousseau the bundle. Danielle reached out her uninjured arm and stroked the infants face gently.

'She is beautiful,' Danielle murmured. 'I would ask to hold her but…' she glanced down at her arm bitterly.

Grace nodded and then became very serious. 'Was it Them?'

'Yes,' Danielle sighed. 'They are no more than two days away but these people…' she shook her head, frustrated. 'They will not listen to me. They think that I am insane, that I am a liar.'

'Why would they think that you are insane?' Grace pressed.

'I hear things,' Danielle confessed blankly, her eyes slipping out of focus and staring at nothing. 'I hear voices, out in the jungle. _Whispers._'

Grace's breath caught in her throat.

'Whispers?'

'Sometimes they are there and sometimes they are not,' Danielle continued as though Grace wasn't even there. 'But they always tell me things. Things I sometimes do not want to know.'

Grace leant right forward until she caught Danielle's pale eyes with her own dark ones.

'I hear them too.'

Danielle stared at her blankly for a long moment and then, inexplicably, her face split into a relieved smile.

'You do?'

Grace nodded fervently. 'They tell me things. Things I shouldn't know – that I _can't_ know.'

Danielle reached out her good arm and gripped Grace's shoulder tightly. 'What have they told you?' her eyes were alight with a feverish, intense glow as she shook the younger girls shoulder. 'What have they told you girl?'

It was late by the time Charlie realised that Grace had gone missing. He went around the camp three times and still found no witnesses, Claire trailing after him rolling her eyes.

'She'll be fine,' she insisted. 'She can take care of herself.'

'I know she can,' Charlie said anxiously, twisting his hands together. 'But it doesn't mean that I'm still not worried about her. And what about Hayley? Christ…'

'Come on,' Claire put a firm hand on his arm. 'She'll turn up again okay? Let's just go and have something to eat or something. You must be hungry...'

Charlie hesitated before allowing Claire to lead him back to her shelter and pressing a plate of food into his hands. He picked at it restlessly, constantly glancing over his shoulder. He didn't even notice when Claire surreptitiously fished Aaron out of his cradle and nursed him, her back turned to him.

He didn't even speak until there was the sound of pounding feet and Grace came running up, gasping for breath, Hayley bawling in her arms.

'Grace!' Charlie leapt to his feet and ran forward immediately, leaving Claire to stand awkwardly behind him as he gripped the younger girls shoulders. 'Where the hell have you been! I've been so worried…'

Grace gasped for breath, her hair was falling into her eyes and her hands were frantically holding her daughter to her. 'I was…I was…'

'WHERE WERE YOU?' Charlie practically roared, shaking her by the shoulders.

'Charlie!' Claire said, shocked. Other people began detaching themselves from their campfires and rushing over to see what the commotion was about.

'They are coming!' Grace managed to choke out finally and Charlie froze, staring at her wildly. 'I saw them and They are coming!'

'The Others?' Claire demanded. 'The Others are coming? You're sure?' a murmur of fear went around the small crowd that had gathered. Jack came pounding up from further down the beach, his face creased with worry.

'What's going on?'

'Jack,' Grace took a step towards him, effectively breaking Charlie's hold on her shoulders. 'I have seen Them – They are coming! We must go now!'

'We're not going anywhere,' Jack said firmly, his voice carrying through the night. 'If we just all stay here and…'

'Do you want to be responsible for the deaths of all of these people?' Grace practically shrieked. She looked almost as deranged as Danielle. 'Would you like that on your conscience Jack? Because if you would like that then by all means, stay! I am leaving!'

And without another word, she turned to hurry back into the jungle.

'If you're _that_ worried then why don't you go back to the caves with somebody and stay there the night?' Jack said peevishly. His eyes immediately went to Charlie but to the surprise of many, Hurley stepped forward.

'What?' he said defensively. 'If there's going to be a battle or anything I don't wanna be anywhere near here.'

Charlie came up behind Claire swiftly to whisper in her ear as Jack continued to chastise Grace. 'You should go too,' he murmured. 'Just in case.'

'I'm not going anywhere,' Claire hissed back defiantly. 'What if she's wrong?'

'What if she's right?' Charlie returned.

Claire stared at him stonily for a moment and then sighed. 'Fine. But only if you come too.'

All around them there was restless movement. People were starting to head back to their shelters, muttering together, worried voices mingling together.

'If there's going to be a battle they'll need me,' Charlie whispered fiercely, steering Claire towards Hurley and Grace.

'But _I_ need you,' Claire whispered, stopping Charlie in his tracks.

The two of them regarded each other for a moment and then Claire leant up on her tiptoes to kiss him lightly. Her hand lingered on his cheek and she stroked a soft line down his jaw before turning away.

Charlie went back to Claire's shelter to help her pack and after she had gone, he rummaged through his bag until he found his gun. Five minutes after Claire had disappeared into the jungle with Hurley, Grace and several others, somebody screamed from further up the beach and then, moments later, the first shot was fired.

The leaden feeling of dread deep in his stomach fell away as he stood up and checked his gun over one last time.

The end had finally begun.


	12. The Warning

Title: The Warning  
Spoilers: set from about episode 14 of the new season, from there its just spec and my muse having some fun  
Summary: Charlie, unable to cope with Claire's estrangement any longer, sets off into the jungle alone. But after a month of pain and hardships, he stumbles across something he wasn't ever expecting to find out there…  
Disclaimer: Isn't mine, never has been, never will be and I promise I'm not making any money – writing fanfiction is simply for my own self-satisfaction.

* * *

What exactly possessed Charlie to run towards the sound of gunfire was unknown to him, but before he could stop himself to think about it, he was off down the beach. As he ran, someone's shelter was set alight and the flames went up with a great _whoosh_ into the trees. Within minutes the whole camp was burning and the screams intensified.

The Others were everywhere, mere shadows flickering in and out of the smoke as the other survivors ran around aimlessly, trying to avoid the gunfire and the smoke. A group of people rushed past Charlie, heading towards the water – friend or foe he couldn't say. The smoke was getting thicker by the minute and the cool night breeze was carrying tiny glowing embers into the night sky.

Guns were still going off, screams were piercing the air. Charlie felt a bullet whizz past his head and he instinctively dropped into the sand. In another situation, the image of himself crawling backwards through the sand might have been funny to him but this certainly wasn't a time to laugh. Taking temporary refuge behind a tree, Charlie whirled around when somebody grabbed his shoulder only to find Jack there looking grimly terrified.

'Charlie, try and find any of ours you can and get them all together. We can't fight them spread out like this.'

Charlie nodded quickly and headed towards the nearest shelter.

When he reached it however, all he found was a bloodied body. He cast his eyes down, offered them a single moment of silent prayer and then continued on. Within a few minutes he had directed about half a dozen people to a marshalling point. They were a sad bunch, none of them seemed to have any sort of weaponry. Charlie reached up and – surprised at his own strength – broke off a fairly hefty sized branch and handed it to one of them just as Jack came running up, with a handful of guns and a small group of his own. Sayid's eyes were positively black as he cocked his rifle and nodded over to where most of the Others were standing, half obscured by smoke.

'We can't let these bastards do this to us,' Jack yelled above all the noise. 'Grab a rocks, sticks, anything you can. Don't let them think that they can just walk in here and take us down without a decent fight.'

As everyone rushed forward into the smoke, Charlie amongst them, several of the Others, using slings of some kind, propelled rocks towards them. Jack copped one to the head and he collapsed immediately. Charlie hardly had time to register what had happened before he was locked into close combat with one of Them.

The man before him was short, even shorter than he was and close up, Charlie could see that he was quite young, probably just a teenager. Charlie raised his gun and squeezed the trigger and the boy stumbled forwards, his eyes wide and shocked. As Charlie glanced around to see where his next attacker might come from, somebody cuffed him viciously around the head and he went face first into the sand, the taste of blood and sand on his lip.

Rolling over onto his back, he aimed blindly and was satisfied to hear the mans scream and the heavy thud which meant he had fallen into the sand. As he got to his feet, Charlie heard one of the bodies on the ground give a harsh cough and then their ragged breathing caught up to his senses. He glanced back down at the two of them. The man was coughing up blood, staining the sand dark.

Charlie turned away.

The battle it seemed had moved on quickly without him and it was relatively quiet here now. He began to move towards the thick of it again, the gun in his hand feeling heavier than before despite the bullets he had already spent.

'Charlie!'

Somebody yelled his name and he began to run towards the person who was waving frantically at him, calling his name. Closer up he could see that it was one of the other survivors, Neill. Charlie didn't know him very well – mostly by name and face than by any other means – but he did know who he was.

'Neill!' Charlie called back, confirming that he had heard, that he was coming, but as he ran, his foot caught on an unidentified object and his ankle collapsed underneath him as he fell sideways.

'Charlie!' Neill ran forward and hauled him to his feet. 'Are you okay? My God they're everywhere!'

'I know. Come on Neill we'll…'

As he spoke, Neill's eyes went over Charlie's shoulder and quite suddenly he threw a punch that barely missed the side of Charlie's face. Charlie hobbled several steps back, unwilling to get caught between two people in a kill or be killed battle. Neill's punch, whilst strong, was ineffectual. It hit his target but didn't stop it. A moment later, the Other came barrelling forward and retaliated fiercely. Within an instant, He had placed His hands on either side of Neill's head and with a resounding, horrible I crack /I , broke his neck.

Neill crumpled to the sand.

Charlie froze solid, staring at the body.

The Other stared at him for a long moment.

And then He took a slow, ominous step forward.

'You're the one who killed Ethan,' he rumbled, his voice hissing over all his consonants like he shared his DNA with some form of reptile. Charlie didn't say anything and the Other continued to speak as he took another slow step forwards.

'And then you crossed the line. You were the one who killed William as well.'

'Oh was that his name?' somebody said sarcastically. Charlie jumped when he realised that it was him who had spoken.

The Other was getting closer, he raised his arm and Charlie saw that he was holding a heavy wooden stick, there appeared to be a long piece of metal through it – a crude axe. Charlie took an unwilling step backwards at the thought of what it could do to him and then he winced heavily when he put too much weight on his ankle. He became more aware of the fact that he was actually holding a gun and he could easily shoot this bastard down, but as he hefted the gun more securely into his hand and went to raise it, the man spoke again.

'I'm going to kill you,' the Other hissed, his pace quickening. 'I'm going to hurt you for hurting my brother.'

Charlie froze completely, the gun halfway up.

'Your brother?'

'Yes!' the Other screeched suddenly. 'My brother!'

And with that, he began to run towards Charlie, an incoherent, raging scream, escaping from his mouth like he was nothing more than a wounded animal.

And then the gunshot went off.

Charlie screamed as he felt a warm liquid splash all over him and the next moment, his attacker ploughed into him, knocking him to the ground. After one deep breath Charlie assessed the damage that had been done. He was being pinned to the ground by someone who was quite clearly dead and who was currently bleeding all over him. His ankle was still searing with pain as well but nothing else seemed to be hurting as he shoved the Other off and looked up at the person who had just saved his life.

Claire was standing not more than six feet away; shock still, one of the handguns in her trembling hands. Her face was pale and set, determined and frightening. There was a deep scratch across her left cheek and her usually sparkling eyes were blank and cold.

'Claire,' Charlie's voice came out as a croak. She lowered the gun slowly and stared at the man she had just killed. Charlie repeated her name until she looked at him.

'Charlie,'

Her face crumpled slightly as she pulled him to his feet and held him tight around the shoulders.

'Are you okay Charlie? You're covered in blood.' She plucked at his t-shirt, wiping ineffectually at the bloody fabric.

'It's his, not mine,' Charlie explained, pulling back to look her in the face properly. He noticed, absurdly, that he'd inadvertently covered her in blood as well. 'Are _you_ okay love?'

Claire nodded her head, avoiding his eyes. 'I'm okay. I think.'

Another gunshot sounded, from further away. People were yelling and running but the Others seemed to have all but disappeared.

'It sounds like it's nearly all over,' Charlie limped several steps forward, peering through the dim light from the burning shelters at the shadowy figures there.

Claire followed him to the tree line cautiously. As they walked, she pressed the gun into his hand and he took it without question. As they passed by one shelter that was burning particularly fiercely, somebody came running out from the jungle and gave a great yell. Within moments, the two of them were surrounded by a wall of dark faces and glinting weapons – They had moved so fast they didn't have time to even react. Charlie took a quick step backwards, away from one side of the circle only for his ankle to collapse on

'Do not touch them,' a cold voice spoke and a man stepped through the circle to address them. He had short cropped hair and pale, cold eyes. 'They are mine to deal with.' He paused for a moment, obviously relishing the moment before he spoke. 'Hello there Charlie.'

'If you want to kill me…' Charlie said quickly.

'We would have done so already,' the man interrupted, sounding thoroughly bored. 'Now I want you to listen to me and listen to me good and hard Charlie – because if you don't, I'll take great delight in killing this pretty little creature here right in front of you.'

The man nodded towards Claire and Charlie immediately tried to stand, his face a mask of pure fury. Claire held him down, a firm hand on his shoulder. The man before them chuckled suddenly.

'What's so funny, eh?' Charlie demanded.

'Oh, just that the great rock god and murderer, Charlie Pace, could be undone by a simple ankle sprain, a pretty little girl and a bastard child.'

Claire visibly flinched. 'Fuck you!' Charlie growled and the man began to laugh at him again as he struggled to stand and Claire held him down. Some of the others in the circle began to laugh as well but when the man spoke again, his voice was colder than ever before and they swiftly quieted.

'This was a warning, Charlie. The next time you cross the line, no one will be spared.'

And then, without warning, the Others flitted back into the jungle quite silently, as though they had never even been there to begin with, leaving a feast of carnage behind them.

Charlie and Claire didn't dare move for almost a full minute after they had left but finally, Claire helped him to his feet and the two of them stood side by side as they watched the rest of their camp burn slowly into a crumble of dark ash. Claire reached out blindly and caught Charlie's hand in hers, curling her fingers around his own, thin digits and Charlie gave a long sigh. Her gun was still in his hand and he still hadn't asked how she had gotten it but he wasn't about to start asking questions like that now when there was so much else happening.

'What do we do now?' she murmured, so quietly that he almost didn't hear her. 'God, Charlie…'

'I guess we find the other survivors,' Charlie murmured back, squeezing her hand. 'Make sure the people at the caves are still okay. Start cleaning all this bloody mess up...'

'But its all just…gone,' Claire whispered shakily. 'All our shelters just burned away, our supplies, our tarps... There's nothing left. All the trees…and what are we going to do with all the bodies? We're going to have to start all over again.'

Charlie nodded grimly. 'Yeah. We're gonna have to start all over again.'

The sound of a voice calling out stilled them both.

'One of ours?' Claire questioned immediately, her voice low. 'It could be a trap.'

'You heard Him,' Charlie sighed. 'If They'd wanted to kill the two of us, They would have. He had us surrounded and He let us go.'

The two of them began picking their way through the debris, coming to a stop whenever they saw a body. And then, finally…

'Hey Chassy.'

Charlie started at the rasp of a southern drawl and peered down at one of the many crumpled bodies on the ground. He'd have known that voice anywhere, but he still had to come a little closer to make sure. Claire followed in his wake, gasping when she saw the state of the man on the ground.

''bout time someone showed up.' The man rasped. His eyes were dark with pain, his shirt blackened with blood.

'Sawyer.'


	13. The Whisperers

Title: The Other – 12 – The Whisperers  
Spoilers: set from about episode 14 of the new season, from there its just spec and my muse having some fun  
Summary: Charlie, unable to cope with Claire's estrangement any longer, sets off into the jungle alone. But after a month of pain and hardships, he stumbles across something he wasn't ever expecting to find out there…  
Disclaimer: Isn't mine, never has been, never will be and I promise I'm not making any money – writing fanfiction is simply for my own self-satisfaction.

* * *

Charlie knelt down awkwardly beside Sawyer. He was riddled with holes, full of bullets and he'd lost far too much blood. There was nothing they could do for him now but he tried to make a bit of light out of the situation.

'You got yourself banged up pretty bad, huh?'

Sawyer gave a short laugh and then began coughing violently, bringing up a large quantity of blood. He took in a short breath before continuing. 'Yeah. Gave _Them_ somethin' to think about for a minute or two that's for sure.'

Charlie could hear Claire beginning to cry beside him. Glancing back at her for a moment, he reached out and took her hand in his before squeezing it gently.

'Hey, Charlie,' he turned back to Sawyer. 'Can you do somethin' for me?'

Charlie merely nodded.

'Kill me?'

There was a long silence before Charlie nodded. Claire immediately pulled her hand out of his and stepped back, sobbing quietly into her hands. His own hands trembling, Charlie stood up and aimed Claire's gun. Sawyer blinked up at him, a hint of his usual, sarcastic smile on his face.

'You're a pal,' he said as genially as if Charlie had just offered him an extra rationing of boar meat. 'Tell Jack I said seeya.'

'I will.'

Charlie didn't know how many bullets Claire had left in her gun.

He only needed one to finish the job.

'Charlie!'

He turned his head, blurred vision coming to rest on two figures running madly towards him. Vaguely he registered them as Kate and Sayid before she was at Sawyers side, lightly slapping his face.

'Wake up Sawyer, wake _up_.'

Sayid allowed her a few moments of self-inflicted denial before peeling her gently off the corpse and folding his arms around her where she sobbed for a long moment. Claire was still shaking with silent sobs and Charlie moved to put his arm around her shoulders – she looked ready to collapse.

'Are you both all right?' Sayid said over Kate's shoulder. Charlie nodded grimly and – after a moment – so did Claire. Sayid grimaced his approval. 'Good. We need your help. Jack has been knocked unconscious and there are a lot of people who have been wounded. I cannot tend to them all by myself.'

'Or put out all the fires alone,' Charlie agreed in a murmur. Claire nodded her acquiescence, sighed and brushed away her remaining tears, shrugging out from underneath Charlie's arm to address Sayid directly in a soft but clear voice.

'Just tell us what to do.'

* * *

The next few hours were horrific to say the least. As the sun rose slowly over the beach, the devastation caused by the Others was exposed, piece by piece. More than once a body was turned over in hopes that they were alive, only to find that half their face was gone or – even worse – it was somebody that they had once known, shared a moment of companionship with, even loved.

The most awful of these moments had been, without a doubt, Jin finding Sun's body crumpled underneath a tree, her eyes wide and horrified, her face caked with dried blood. His grief stricken howls had jarred sharply with the slow crashing of waves against the shore and had frightened the hell out of the messenger who had come hurrying down from the caves at daybreak to see whether it was safe yet. Within an hour, everyone who had been up at the caves was down at the beach lending a hand. They had survived the night completely unscathed and were suitably horrified at what had happened to their stubborn, beach dwelling counterparts.

Hurley, who had never been good with blood, was given the job of looking after the still-unconscious Jack as well as baby Aaron, whom Claire had entrusted to him when she had set out from the caves the night before. Grace joined him, bouncing Hayley worriedly on her knee, trying to keep out of everyone's way as they rushed hither and thither, putting out the remaining fires and tending to the wounded. By midday there was a pile of corpses over near the other graves and Eko had enlisted the help of two men to dig graves whilst he blessed the bodies.

Charlie and Claire worked tirelessly, with their little medical knowledge they did the best they could, Charlie often doing the physical deed whilst Claire calmed the patient – whoever it may be. Sayid was in his element, barking out orders left right and centre and people followed his instructions as best they could, their faces pinched into expressions of discomfort as they shifted, lifted, cleaned, sutured and bandaged again and again.

But there were still more deaths. People were continuing to succumb to wounds too horrific to even detail, and everywhere there was blood seeping into the sand, imprinting a thousand horrific nightmares onto people's eyelids.

Close to ten in the morning, the sun well up now, Jack finally opened bleary eyes and demanded to know what was happening. Hurley had the difficult task of telling him and then making him stay still and rest, insisting that he had a concussion.

'I don't have a concussion!' Jack had said in his stubborn way. 'I'm just a bit dizzy, that's all!' And with that he had tried to sit up, only to fall sideways into the sand.

It didn't take much convincing after that to make him stay put.

'Dude, you're better off staying here than trying to help people and like, fall on them or something,' Hurley had pointed out and for once, Jack actually listened to him.

* * *

By midday, enough order had been restored for the survivors to take a break. Several people collapsed into sleep, the cave dwellers continuing to care for the wounded whilst Sayid soldiered on. Claire returned to her son for several hours and Hurley was given the unpleasant task of helping Charlie to identify who had died and cross them off the flight manifest – mercifully it hadn't been lost or burnt in the melee of the previous night.

'Are you sure that we've got this right?' Hurley asked, shaken, as he stared at the piece of paper in his hands. 'Cause, dude…'

'I know Hurley,' Charlie rubbed his eyes. He'd never felt so tired; his stomach felt like it was eating itself inside out and his injured ankle desperately needed to be strapped. And there was still so much work to be done…

Hurley was silent for a long moment, toying with the pencil in his hand before he spoke. 'If we're right, if all these people have actually died and we haven't screwed up…' he paused, reading and re-reading the number on the page. '…Then that means that there's only twenty five of us left dude.'

Charlie rubbed his eyes again and tousled his hair. 'Yeah, I know Hurl.'

'Twenty five dude,' Hurley said emphatically. _'Twenty five.'_

'I _know_ Hurley!' Charlie snapped.

'That's like, half of us,' Hurley said, awe struck. 'And Sun was pregnant! These guys are crazy – I mean, why would they do that?'

'I don't know!' Charlie began to limp away swiftly.

'I have to go tell Jack the final number,' Hurley called after him. 'He made me promise that I would. Do you…'

'_You_ tell Jack!' Charlie yelled, whirling around. 'I don't want to hear it Hurl! You weren't here last night, you don't _understand._ This is all _my fault!'_

'What?' Hurley looked genuinely confused.

'Oh just sod off!' Charlie said irritably. 'It's not like you'd care anyway – even if you did understand.'

And with that, he stomped off, grimacing at the pain in his ankle. He wandered aimlessly amongst the wreckage of their meagre civilisation for a while before finding himself on the vast expanse of beach they frequented. He scanned it once, surprised to find Claire's lonely silhouette there. She was still sticky with blood and staring at the ocean, lost in her own private grief. Aaron was nowhere to be seen.

Charlie paused before heading up to her. Despite how awful he was feeling, he still couldn't help but think that she looked worse than he did and she probably didn't need to deal with his self-inflicted angst right now. He came up behind her slowly, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. She stiffened for a moment but when he spoke she gave a small sob of recognition and pulled his arms around her, replacing her arms with his, frantic for some shred of comfort. A bit taken aback, Charlie rested his chin on her shoulder, closing his eyes when he felt her tears tickling against the side of his face.

'I had to get away,' she ventured in a small voice. 'It was just…all too much. Just all too much.'

'I know,'

'Thank God,' Claire drew a deep, shuddering breath and Charlie felt her ribs shake beneath his embrace. 'Thank God I've got you.'

The two of them watched the horizon for several long minutes, both of them feeling surprisingly cold despite their physical closeness and the heat rising from the sand beneath them. It seemed incredible to Charlie that only yesterday they had stood very much like this in a moment of defiance to anything that could come between them or hurt them. Now however…

'It feels different,' Claire mumbled suddenly and Charlie frowned against the side of her face.

'What does?'

Claire sighed heavily and turned slowly until she was facing him, her hands gripping the front of his shirt. She didn't raise her eyes to his, preferring to stare at his chest as she continued to speak.

'It feels different when you…when you're actually holding the gun, pointing it at someone, intending to kill them...' And finally her eyes flickered up to his, sad and empty. 'I guess I understand now how you felt before. When you…Ethan…' she shut her eyes for a long moment and several more tears squeezed their way onto her cheeks.

And before he could even think about stopping himself, Charlie leant down and kissed her, soft and chaste. Her eyes flew open for one startled moment before they flickered shut again and she leant into him, cold, bitter tears falling down her face as she deepened the kiss.

It was Claire who finally broke the kiss, stepping out of Charlie's embrace carefully.

'I should go to Aaron,' she said apologetically, avoiding his eye. 'I haven't really paid him much attention today.'

'Fair enough,' Charlie said, putting his hands in his pockets, feeling suddenly awkward. 'Is he with Grace?'

'Yeah,' Claire tucked her hair behind her ear. 'I'd rather Kate take him but…she's otherwise indisposed at the moment. It's not really fair for me to burden her with him after Sawyer...'

'Do you want me to stay with you?' Charlie interrupted. Claire froze and for a long moment Charlie wasn't sure whether she would burst into tears or begin to yell at him but then she nodded slightly and the two of them fell into step on their way back to Grace.

She seemed agitated when they arrived, pacing back and forth and throwing the occasional, worried glance at Aaron in his crib and Hayley, who was curled up in a swaddle of blankets next to his crib.

'What's up Grace?' Charlie asked as soon as they were within earshot. Grace looked up and gave a cry of relief, looking positively frantic as she raced up and grasped the front his shirt desperately.

'Sayid just came past here. Charlie – he said that Jack wanted you. He needs you. Right now.'

'Can't it wait?' Charlie said, frustrated. 'What's happened?'

'He said it could not wait,' Grace's eyes were wide and fearful. 'He was running to try and find you. It's _urgent._'

'_What's_ urgent?'

Grace scoffed. 'You think he would tell me? He does not trust me.'

'He's had people lie to him before,' Charlie said dismissively. 'It's understandable that he'd be wary of you. Anyway, where is he now then?'

'I told you!' Grace said, angry now, and she slapped his chest for emphasis. 'He ran off to find you! But Jack needs you right _now_ Charlie.'

'Fine, okay I'm going!' Charlie said, matching her anger. 'Christ…could this day get any worse…' his eyes came to rest on Claire who was kneeling by Aaron's crib and shushing him and he hesitated.

'You go,' she said quietly. 'I need to look after Aaron.'

Fuming, Charlie turned back up the beach again. Within minutes he had found Jack and was kneeling beside him, ignoring Hurley who was more than surprised at his sudden appearance.

'Hey, Grace said that Sayid told her you wanted me. What's up?'

Jack glanced up at him with bleary, confused eyes. 'What are you talking about Charlie? Sayid's…'

'Right here,'

And sure enough, he had materialised as if out of nowhere, a bottle of water in his hands and an expression of bewilderment on his face. 'And I was not looking for you.'

Charlie stared at him blankly. 'But Grace said…she said that Jack wanted me and that you were looking…'

Hurley, Jack and Sayid stared at Charlie blankly for a long moment and then all three of them jumped in unison as he leapt to his feet and hightailed it back up the beach, their concerned yells chasing after him.

As he got closer to where he had left Grace and Claire the scene before him began to unfold in full technicolour detail. It was almost like watching the climax of a movie. As Charlie began to accelerate, Grace reached back and pulled out a black something from the waistband of her pants. It glinted dully in the sunlight and when he realised what it was, a strangled scream choked its way out of Charlie's throat, stumbled across his tongue and burst into the still air.

'_Grace!'_

Grace gave a tremendous start, whipping around and firing a poorly aimed shot at him, which grazed past his side. Claire, meanwhile, had gathered Aaron in her arms and was backing away swiftly, looking abjectly terrified.

'What the hell is _wrong_ with you?' Charlie screamed, still running towards Grace. 'What are you doing?'

'I have to kill her!' Grace's face was alight, a transport of demented beauty. 'The whisperers have _never_ been wrong before. She has to die Charlie, don't you understand? Don't you _see?'_

'Grace,' Charlie said as firmly as he could and was terrified to hear the squeak in his own voice. _'Put the gun down now.'_

Grace stared at him, a mixture of confusion and hurt mingling on her face.

'Danielle said that this was the only way to…'

'_Rousseau_ said? Did she put you up to this?' Grace's silence said it all. Charlie took another step forward, appealing. 'Grace, Rousseau is _crazy.'_

'No she is not!' Grace yelled and she actually stamped her foot. Charlie froze, worried she might try and shoot at him again. 'She hears them too! The whisperers! They are _real_ Charlie and they have never been wrong before! I must kill her and raise her baby!'

'Nobody is going to raise this baby except for me!' Claire burst out unexpectedly and Grace turned back to her, raising the gun.

'Be quiet!'

'Wait a minute,' Charlie took another step forward, alarm bells were beginning to ring in his head. 'How did you get a gun?'

Grace watched him out of the corner of her eye nervously as she answered.

'I found it on the ground. The whisperers told me where to get it from.'

'The whisperers told you to go find a gun and then come and kill Claire.' Charlie said flatly.

Grace looked at him pleadingly. '_Please_ Charlie. You must understand…'

'I'm not going to even try understanding anything until you put the gun down on the ground and talk to me reasonably.' Charlie said firmly. 'Come on Grace, you don't really want to do this. You would have already…'

'You do not understand me!' Grace screamed and for a moment she looked as mad as Rousseau. 'You do not know what I have been through!'

'You think I haven't seen things that aren't there?' Charlie yelled. 'You think I haven't heard things that I couldn't possibly be hearing? Why do you think Claire kicked me out in the first place? Because I nearly hurt Aaron because I thought that he was in trouble. Because I listened to the whisperers Grace.'

Grace was beginning to cry. Her hands were shaking.

'Just put the gun down slowly,' Charlie took another step forward. 'Just put it down slowly and we'll talk okay? We can sort this all out…'

Grace let out a throaty wail and then slowly, slowly, she knelt down and placed the gun on the sand before placing her hands over her face and sobbing pathetically. Charlie darted forward and picked up the gun then stood back, moving slowly towards Claire.

'That's good Grace,' he babbled. 'That's really good – okay so now what we're going to do is…'

But before he could finish his sentence, Grace had let out a final wail and launched herself back onto her feet. Her hands outstretched towards Claire, she began to run straight at her. Claire turned her back to the crazed girl, her immediate instinct to protect Aaron. She let out an unearthly scream as Grace tried to snatch Aaron from her arms and the two of them turned in deadly circles.

'I do not need a gun to kill you!' Grace raged, placing her hands on either side of Claire's head in a movement Charlie had seen executed only the night before on another survivor, Neill.

Before he could even register what he was doing, Charlie had raised the gun and squeezed the trigger, emptying the remaining cartridges without even thinking. His eyes blurred with sudden tears and through the mist of them, he watched as the two of them fell to the ground right in front of him.

After a long, shocked, pause, his eyesight seemed to return and he stared at the bodies on the ground. There were two babies crying out but the sound of them seemed half muted as he took several wobbly step forwards and then collapsed onto his knees beside the closest body.

She was quite clearly dead, blood was trickling from her open mouth and her eyes were wide and staring. The other however was very much alive – the only bullet she had suffered had hit her a glancing blow on her side and had miraculously missed the baby in her arms.

Wordlessly she passed her son to him and then pressed her hands to the wound on her side.

'I need Sayid,' she said, her voice shaky but clear. 'Put Aaron in the cradle and then go and get him.'

Charlie nodded dumbly, still not looking at her. 'I shot Grace.'

'I know,' Claire whispered, her face was tear-stained for what seemed like the millionth time today. 'I know you did but Charlie, I need you right now okay? I need you to get Sayid for me.'

And Charlie finally looked her in the eyes.

'I don't know if I can do much more of this,' he whispered. 'It's all too much… everything just seems to be happening at the same time and…'

'You only need to do one more thing,' Claire whispered back frantically. 'And then I promise you'll be able to rest. Just _get Sayid.'_


	14. The Child II

Title: The Other – 13 – The Child: Part II  
Spoilers: set from about episode 14 of the new season, from there its just spec and my muse having some fun  
Summary: Charlie, unable to cope with Claire's estrangement any longer, sets off into the jungle alone. But after a month of pain and hardships, he stumbles across something he wasn't ever expecting to find out there…  
Disclaimer: Isn't mine, never has been, never will be and I promise I'm not making any money – writing fanfiction is simply for my own self-satisfaction.

* * *

They buried her body with the other dead in the late afternoon, and they marked her grave with a modest wooden cross. Charlie protested of course, insisting that she buried with her mother, near the other hatch, but it was too far to go and too dangerous. They all knew now of the warning that had been issued to Charlie and Claire and nobody wanted to cross the line again for fear of the wrath of the Others.

The funerals were quick – there were too many people for anyone to speak for long on who they had lost. Kate offered a few words for Sawyer only to break down into hysterical tears and find solace in a grim faced Jack. Jin seemed beyond everything and managed only a few stuttered phrases in Korean before cutting off completely and just hanging his head. Everyone was about to move on when he raised his face again, to try for a final message that everyone could understand.

'Sun,' he began. 'I, love you. Always. I miss, you. Always. Jin-soo sad. I always miss. Always love.'

When they reached Grace, Charlie felt like cold hands were gripping his throat but when Eko nodded to him he stepped forward nonetheless, Hayley bundled up in his arms. Her dark eyes were bright and wide-awake, as though she understood the importance of what was happening. Claire was standing well apart from him, Aaron nestled in his Bjorn – the wound on her side, although not deep nor fatal, was still painful and she found it hard to hold her son properly.

'Grace was an – amazing individual,' Charlie offered quietly to the small, solemn assembly. 'She was raised here, on the island from a young age and in her short life she saw and did things that most of us would never have even dreamed of.' He paused to take a breath and found his voice cracking as he continued. 'She was fifteen years old when I met her, but she always seemed much older to me. She was strong and tough, resourceful and proud. She helped me when I'd given up on myself. When everyone else had turned away and just let me disappear.

'She was kind, she looked after me and I looked after her in return. I delivered her child and she trusted me enough to let me make the decision to come back here when the going got too tough out there.

'I killed a man for her. I don't know whether that decision was right or wrong but I'm glad I did it. I'm also glad that when the time came, I was able to end her life as well – when she became a danger to me and to the people that I love.'

Everyone turned to glance at Claire and Aaron at this but she ignored their stares, her eyes were on Charlie – the only one who didn't turn to her. Instead, he glanced down at the infant in his arms, barely a month old and a silvery tear ran down his nose and onto her tiny face.

'I know that she'd want me to take care of Hayley.' He said quietly, everyone hanging on his words. 'I just hope that I can raise her okay here. I'm not exactly the maternal type but...' he fought for a moment to keep his tears in and then gave up. 'I hope you can finally rest in peace Grace. I promise I'll do my best.'

By the time the funerals were over and the bodies had all been buried the sun had set and everyone began to retire to their various ruined shelters or new temporary homes, huddling around fires. Charlie followed Claire back to her shelter, unsure of where else to go and whilst she didn't stop him or question his presence, she hadn't spoken a word to him since before the funerals – in fact, since she had asked him to get Sayid to tend to her wound earlier that day.

Confused by her behaviour but not discouraged by her lack of communication, Charlie left Hayley with her while he went to refill their drink bottles. When he returned, however the infant was yowling her lungs out and Claire was studiously ignoring her, trying unsuccessfully to shush Aaron instead.

'Why don't you try and calm Hayley down instead for a while?' Charlie scolded as he scooped Hayley into his arms and began to calm her himself.

'Because she's not _my_ baby,' Claire said, her voice cold. 'She's not my responsibility.'

'Maybe so!' Charlie began angrily. 'But couldn't you at least…'

'Grace tried to kill me,' Claire said flatly. Charlie barked out a sarcastic laugh. 'I know you trusted her,' Claire continued. 'And you knew her for much longer than I did – but she tried to kill me!'

'And look what happened to her!' Charlie jumped in. 'Look what I did to keep you safe!'

'I didn't ask you to!' and suddenly Claire was on her feet, holding Aaron close to her, her face screwed up in rage. 'I never asked you to kill for me!'

'Well I never asked you to kill for me either!' Charlie bellowed back.

Claire froze, her mouth open slightly in shock.

'I never asked you to kill for me,' Charlie repeated, a little quieter. 'But you did. And now you know how I felt when I killed Ethan – when I…when I shot Grace.'

Claire stared at him for a moment longer, her face slowly crumbling into tears again.

'God…' she whispered. 'God Charlie, why didn't you just stay here? If I'd just talked to you two months ago…'

'Maybe I wouldn't have left?' Charlie predicted grimly. 'Maybe I wouldn't have gotten lost? Met Grace? Lead the Others back here? Maybe you're right.'

Claire's lip trembled as she put Aaron back into his cradle with shaking hands.

'I guess we're both to blame really.' She said shakily. 'Aren't we?'

'I guess so,' Charlie said sourly. 'And now that we've sorted that out, can we please sort out this whole avoidance-of-Hayley thing you've got going on here? Because there is _no_ way I can raise her without your help.'

And with that, he presented Claire with the fussing bundle in his arms.

'My side hurts,' Claire protested immediately.

'You were holding Aaron just fine a few minutes ago,' Charlie said accusingly. 'You said you felt guilty for everything that had happened? Make up for it now – help me to look after Hayley.' The look in his eyes left no room for excuses, Claire hesitantly reached out and took the tiny bundle, automatically soothing her. Within moments, Hayley had brought her loud fussing down to a soft keening moan instead. Charlie stepped forward and brushed a hand over her fine, dark hair and then looked up to catch Claire's eyes.

'We can do this.'

Claire nodded slightly and managed a tremulous smile. 'I've no doubt.' But then she bit her lip. 'It's going to be hard work though. Two babies…'

'We'll manage somehow,' Charlie reassured her. 'We've been through worse – right?'

'Too true,' Claire hesitantly leant up to press her lips against his, soft and chaste. 'I guess it can only get better from here, right?'

* * *

Danielle Rousseau readjusted her hold on the rifle in her arms, wincing – her injured arm was still painful and she almost wished that she hadn't refused treatment from their doctor. Levelling the sight with her eye, she watched Charlie and Claire intently. They appeared to be having some sort of an argument. Claire's face was red from exertion, her hair falling across her face. Charlie looked just as angry; his face in a furious scowl as he gestured with the bundle in his arms.

Rousseau pursed her lips as she suppressed a snort of derisive laughter. The two of them were almost laughable to watch when they fought but she knew from her own personal experience that it was foolishness to go after either one of them – for the other would surely follow soon, looking for revenge.

That is if the latter didn't attack you first. Rousseau still had the scars on her forearms from where Claire had torn into her flesh with her fingernails to prove _that_ point.

The motion of Charlie handing Hayley over to Claire snapped Rousseau back to attention. Taking note of the uncomfortable expression on Claire's face, she peered at the two of them carefully and wondered if she should even try and take the child from them – from the look of fierce, paternalistic pride on Charlie's face she wasn't feeling particularly game, even if Claire looked less than pleased with the arrangement.

She lowered her rifle slightly and took to peering far sightedly from her hiding place in the jungle. The far off, fire silhouetted images of Charlie and Claire were still talking as she leant up to kiss him tenderly. Rousseau's breath hitched but she didn't look away as Charlie wrapped his arms around Claire and Hayley both, pressing his lips to her forehead. The sight was enough to make her want to burst into miserable tears – the thought of familial love a mere shadow of memory for her now, something once had and lost.

A blink of an eye later, she was up and walking into the jungle, leaving nothing behind but a lingering presence of sadness.

* * *

'Charlie?'

'Mmmn?'

'I missed you.'

Charlie let out a long, soft sigh as he buried his face in Claire's long hair. 'Yeah. Me too.'

'Do you think…' Claire pulled back enough to look him in the eyes again, her face solemn with thought. 'Do you think that we're…that maybe we've…we can…I mean, have we…?' she trailed off looking thoroughly confused and more than slightly annoyed at herself but Charlie only chuckled lightly as he took Hayley out of her arms.

'If I knew what the hell you were talking about, I might be able to answer that,' he said genially. 'As it is, I'm bloody exhausted so I'm going to find a piece of sand to curl up on here...'

'Wait,' Claire reached out and put a firm hand on his shoulder. 'You don't have to sleep on the sand.'

'Where else am I going to sleep?' Charlie said, non-plussed. 'It's not like there's much else for me to sleep on apart from the cushions that didn't get crispy fried – the ones we salvaged…' Claire nodded along as his voice slowed and trembled to a stop. 'From your old shelter…?'

The two of them stared at each other for a long moment and then Charlie finally spoke up.

'You want me to sleep with you?'

'Yes,' Claire said but when his eyes glinted mischievously at her, she hastily jumped in with, 'But not like that!'

'Like what exactly?' Charlie said, his eyebrows rising up his forehead.

Claire rolled her eyes. 'You're such a bloody _man_ sometimes. I'm _injured_ for Chrissakes!'

'I know, I know,' Charlie held up a hand in defeat. 'I was joking love, you know I was just joking.'

'I wonder sometimes,' Claire muttered as she sank onto the scattered remnants of her bed. 'And if you keep teasing me then I might just have to retract my offer.'

'Oh you wouldn't want to do that,' Charlie said as he settled down beside her and the two of them began to organise themselves a little better around the snuffling bundle of Hayley. 'I'm a terrific hot water bottle.'

'I'll bet,'

The moment when they both lay down was an awkward one, the two of them trying to stay close but still apart as well as not squashing Hayley in the process, but after several moments of awkward shuffling and one terrifying nose-brush, the two of them settled down quite comfortably, knee to knee and forehead almost touching forehead, Hayley nestled snug between their bodies and Aaron's cradle acting as a headboard.

And it was in this moment of companionable warmth and familial love that Charlie began to cry quite silently. Claire, oblivious to the slight trembling of his knees, kissed his nose by Braille and muttered a "good night" before settling down for a heavy night of exhausted sleep. Charlie however lay awake until it was almost dawn, unable to do anything but cry out all the tears that he'd been holding in for the past two months and thank God that, despite everything that had happened and everything he had seen and done, he somehow hadn't lost Claire.


	15. Epilogue

Title: The Other – 14 – The Epilogue  
Spoilers: set from about episode 14 of the second season, from there its just spec and my muse having some fun  
Summary: Charlie, unable to cope with Claire's estrangement any longer, sets off into the jungle alone. But after a month of pain and hardships, he stumbles across something he wasn't ever expecting to find out there…  
Disclaimer: Isn't mine, never has been, never will be and I promise I'm not making any money – writing fanfiction is simply for my own self-satisfaction.

* * *

He waited until she was completely alone before making his move, swift and sure-footed to their shelter. He didn't want anyone else to hear what was happening – it was even harder to keep secrets nowadays, their numbers were becoming so few.

'Hullo,'

'Hey Charlie. What's up?'

'I'm leaving.'

'You're what?'

'I'm leaving. Today. With Hayley. She's nearly fifteen now…she's been asking me questions, asking me to take her back.'

'I knew she'd want to go back sooner or later.'

'Mmmn. I came to say goodbye.'

'Do you want me to tell Jack?'

'Yeah. He'll want to bring us back but you can just tell him that we'll come when we're ready. I don't know how long Hayley will want to stay – if she'll even want to stay at all...'

'She'll stay as long as she needs to – and so will you. Oh don't look so gloomy Charlie, come here and give me cuddle.'

'But I'm going to _miss_ you,'

'You'll do fine without me. You've done it before. You just take as long as you both need okay?'

'I love you. Have I told you that recently?'

'You told me yesterday – remember? And I said that I loved you back?'

'I like it when you say it back.'

'Get going you. Make sure you don't get caught out by Them this time either – one more attack from Them and we'll be able to count how many of us are left on our fingers.'

'And a few toes as well!'

'_Go.'_

* * *

'Who are they Daddy?'

'Your real dad and your Nan – your mum's mum.'

'Why isn't mum buried here?'

'I wanted to bury her here but it was too far. And They controlled this place back then. It was too dangerous.'

'I think she'd like to be buried here but it's a bit too late now I guess. Daddy?'

'Yes?'

'Did you love her?'

'Who?'

'My mum. Grace.'

'I loved her, yes. I was never _in_ love with her.'

'And you love me and Aaron? Even though I'm not really your daughter and he's not really your son?'

'Hayley, sweetheart, you've _always_ been my daughter and I will always, always love you.'

Hayley reached a tentative hand to brush along the dark soil that covered His grave. After so many years of wondering she was finally here, meeting her real family for the first time. But was he really her family? After all, the people she considered her parents were no relation at all. But then blood was really no matter when there was enough love in a person's heart.


End file.
